A top ten bestseller!

 

If you happen to follow the bestseller sweepstakes in the New York Times Sunday book review section each week, you'll have a sense of what a very cool day today is for me. The Long Tail, in its second week of eligibility, has broken the top 10 of the NYT non-fiction bestseller list. (last week it was #13). It's #13 on the WSJ list and is the #3 business book.

Many thanks to all of you who bought the book, reviewed it, blogged about it, talked about it and even debated it. I owe you all a great debt of gratitude for making this such a fantastic day, and I hope to partially repay it by continuing the conversation the book began here on the blog, free and open to all.

Part of the reason the book is successful, I believe, is because as I was writing it the smart readers of this blog helped improve the ideas, catch my errors and suggest dozens of applications and dimensions of the Long Tail I never would have thought of myself. So today's recognition is also a recognition of the power of tapping collective intelligence. I couldn't have done it without you!

Comments

[Anonymous Contributor]

Since you couldn't have done it without us, please tell us how you are going to apportion revenues and profits back to your contributors.

Thanks.

[Doug Karr]

Congratulations, Chris! It's a great book.

Interestingly enough, I read a negative review at:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/king/posts.aspx?id=17247

I left a comment on the article 3 days ago that has yet to be approved and posted on the site. I suppose Brad King didn't agree with my assessment of his terrible review. It appears to me that he made up his mind before ever reading it (See Part 1) and then had to write Part II to try to defend it. Here was my comment:

"Did you read the same book that I read? Although Anderson started to really examine "The Long Tail" in 2004, the book has sample after sample through history, including a very good discussion of Sears & Roebuck's catalog industry. It's fairly obvious, since you already commented before reading the book, that you thought that Anderson was trying to take credit for this "Long Tail" notion. I never read that once in the book. What I did read that was very interesting, was how technology and the web have accelerated the growth of this phenomenon. Anderson isn’t providing commentary that this is something ‘new’, he’s providing commentary that there are emerging trends based on this. He backs that up with some sound data.

The book doesn’t want to make me go out and sell niche products. However, the book does tell me that choice is becoming more of a factor as technology continues to allow choice to become affordable. That’s something that all of us need to keep in mind."

Since I couldn't post it on their site, I'll post it here!

[Doug]

Congtrats! The bok and the blog are among my favorites

http://silverbulleits.typepad.com/dcs/2006/07/what_species_th.html

[Dane]

congratulations,Chris!Keep up your good work,and we eagerly look forward to reading nore of you incisive and eye-opening analysis of silently but decisively emerging trends,new or rehashed.
welcome to visit my blog,by the by....

[Cameron Reilly]

Congrats Chris, let's hope the success of the book helps get the "long tail" meme out there to a larger population.

[martijn aslander]

Great! Congrats! Have you considered a Dutch translation? I might be able to help you on that... Visiting Europe somewhere the next 6 months?

[David]

Congrats Chris. The book seems to have a lot of truth in it, so I'm hoping it can bump Myths and Lies out of the #9 spot.

[jean]

Nice site.

[Alicia]

Here is a very mixed review from Variety that isn't convinced the hits are in decline at all.

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117931228?categoryid=1268&cs=1

[David]

Variety of course is a publication that is obsessed w/ hits. It's all about opening weekend box office. If they give you any trouble, just tell them to "ankle".

[Guillaume Voghel]

Wow congratulations!

Thanks for writing the book, I'm having an incredible pleasure at reading it and find it amazingly interesting!

You accomplished a great work and you deserve that position in the NYT best-seller list!

[KaneCitizen]

Hi Chris - Suggestion for correction on page 31 of TLT for future editions. Posted about it here.

[Ben]

We are indeed "obsessed with hits" (and flops) at Variety since big media is our business. But I would hope that would give us a better perspective on how hits are faring in the digital world.

[Tom Knowles]

Chris: Appreciated your book very much... found it crisp, clear and cogent. One wish....I wish you had been a bit more expansive on ALL five categories of business aggregators listed on p. 89. Additionally p. 90 left me a little confused as to your descriptors for categories #4 and #5. Compare list on p.89 with last sentence in first paragraph on p. 90 (in parens).
Has someone else nailed "Communities" and "User Generated Content" the way you captued the long tail?
Thanks.
T. Knowles, Sr.

[Benjamin Wagaman]

It's quite ironic that a book on the decline of the importance of the best-seller is hitting the best-seller list. :) Still, I'm looking forward to reading the book.

[Virginia Postrel]

Congratulations on escaping the long tail--and even the dreaded midlist.

[Hyokon Zhiang]

Congratulations! It is a good news to me to, as my company is the translator (not publisher) of the book.

[harley spearman]

It looks to me like a lot of change.

[TW Andrews]

Here you are, all hit-centric now that you're climing to the top of the powerlaw curve.

Congrats!