|
See, this is the thing: the bestseller is dead.
Okay, I just wrote that for effect. The bestseller isn't dead, but the bestseller is no longer as potent and exclusive as it once was. The thing with top selling books is that they were typically manageable in that they could be wrung through a system that worked on a profit model and they could be, in turn, slogged to the masses in a way not unlike you described above, rb, in your reference to herding consumers, telling them what's hot and what's not.
Well, this has changed in that it's entirely possible for small presses and even self-publishers to eek out a living. I've seen it happen. What makes this possible is knowing where to go to find a readership. The model that everyone is accustomed to----the stacks of Dan Browns in warehouse-style bookstores----is now rivaled, if not surpassed, by niche distribution made possible by digitization and the Internet. The collective book sales of titles that are in no way bestsellers now outweighs the collective book sales of bestsellers. The sheer volume of titles, and the sheer volume of readers with wide interests, makes this possible.
So you basically have two models now: the bestseller model and the niche model. With the latter model, you don't herd consumers; instead you try your darned best to go where they go. The power of choice is in their hands, and so you serve these markets; you don't create them. Heck, many of those in these markets are the creators. You get this subset of consumers who are author/publisher/critic/readers or any mixture thereof.
Basically, what legitimizes "information" (I prefer the word "content") is it being chosen for consumption. Period. You can play the numbers game and say that Harry Potter is more important/legitimate than Don DeLillo's Falling Man or Otep Shamaya's Caught Screaming (Lulu.com's current poetry bestseller), but where does that get us?
Our experiences with texts---their creation, distribution, and consumption---are now largely fragmented. I've never read Dan Brown or J. K. Rowling, nor will I ever. Where does that leave me in the culture of books/texts?
__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
|