I'm big in China!

This won't help me in my jeremiad against blockbuster culture, but I just got the very cool news that The Long Tail has become the #1 non-fiction book in China.

The Simplified Chinese version (shown to right, with a lovely silver foil brushstroke for the powerlaw shape) has shipped 125,000 copies since publication in November. It went to five printings in its first two and a half months, and broke the sales record for business titles at Dangdang.com (the Amazon of China). It also won some awards, including the Annual Concept Prize of Business Books 2006, and one of the best business and management books of the year by The Economic Observer newspaper.

The book has also sold more than 50,000 copies in Taiwan (cover below), which is really an astounding number (I think it actually sold more there than in the UK). 

You can see some of the other covers in various other languages here. I've lost track of how many languages it's been translated into at this point, but I think we're past 30.  Every week or so another one arrives in the mail, and the kids try to guess what country it's from. This week it was the Indonesian version in Bahasa. Tricky.

(chinese cover photo from Kevin Wen)

Comments

[frank]

true...it's quite hot here!

but...don't know if they have the wisdom to successfully practice that in China....

theoretically, Chinese market is still on its way to a mature one...consumers are yet to become more rational. young generation are less concerned about uniformity, but more of diversity...individualism takes on more shapes and sizes, all these definitely represent a great potential for various niche markets...

[Dane]

Hey Chris:
This is Dane From China. And I sent you the other day an email tipping you off on some long-tail dating phenomenon,as exemplified by the ground-breaking dating sites for farmers exclusively.(CIty folks just don't get it).

i'd like more than anything in the world your signed copy of the chinese version of The Long tail(长尾理论 in Chinese).You know chinese spring festival ( the one that takes the center of our hearts just like christmas in the western world) would roll around next week,it would make the most wonderful gift in my whole life.I'd greatly greatly appreciate that.If you could be so kind as to oblige,You may send it to: Dane Cao,7-12-9c,xinghaimingcheng,nanshan,Shenzhen,P.R.China.Thanks for your time.

PS; Maybe I'll send you some chinese traditional trinkets or other ornamental articles that're strongly chinese.Let me know what suits you and your family best.

[Kevin Wen]

Hey Chris,

It's nice to see you used the cover picture I took. :)

[Uri Baruchin]

Happy to hear the book is doing so well.
You certainly deserve it.

[Chris Anderson]

Kevin,

Many thanks for the photo, which I just grabbed off Flickr. Now that I've got a name to go with the pic, I'll update the post to thank you properly.

Best,

Chris

[worth]

Dude, you're huge. The Long Tail is one of 2 blogs that I link to from mine - you're so lucky! Let's work on a long tail for politics concept - a working theory is that although big issues dominate the headlines, they may not dominate voter choice. If people had a candidate that they knew supported enough of the micro or less headline-grabbing issues that the voter did, maybe they would brush aside the campaign rhetoric and vote according to the long tail (since most candidates make the same vague, popular campaign promises anyway, those large issue stances may be seen as nothing more than hot air to most voters). Keep up the interesting work!

[Steve S.]

Congrats, Chris. Seeing the translations do well is always great. Hopefully your publisher will share some of the returns. :-) For my books, I ended up with an impressive $30 from international sales even though I could see that they were doing well in their respective countries.

-Steve

[Tom Raftery]

Congrats Chris and continued success, Tom.

[Sam Jackson]

I guess the long tail book isn't so long tail, eh? Here's to your blockbuster success!

[Matt Forsythe]

Congratulations! It's success is somehow appropriate given that the Chinese migration to the Internet will reinforce the arguments made in the book.

[Harish Vasudevasarma]

Hi Chris,
Truely said it. Having known about Long tail in your book or various places, would any writer/publisher/author prefer to have his/her book in the 'miss' (non-hit) list? Absolutely Not! I guess the fact is that long tail is only an incentive for anyone to publish for mediocre publishers, and not for those wishing to get in to the 'hit' list, where the actual media power lies.

Cheers,
Harish

[Brian Yang]

Hi Chris,

Kudos to you. I believe the sales figure is even more than that! e.g. before the translated print was available in the market, I bought your book published by Random House UK from a local book store. I can feel it's a hot topic here, esply in the blogsphere. By means of any given blog search engines, you will find out how many times the theory is quoted.

To frank,
I'm not going to argue if people here have so-called 'wisdom' to practice the theory in China, whereas I'd like to remind you that Chinese have been doing business for thousands years already.I'd rather agree that it really depends on how mature the markets and consumers are in order to fit in with the theory.

[John I.]

So the Long Tail is a "hit", but, for this one, I 'll make an exception to my general dislike of them....

I wish with all my heart for it to be more and more of a "hit"...

Because it has this strange self-referential property:

Doing exactly what it describes,

Leading people where their true tastes are,

To the Long Tail of everything :)

[Escorts]

Sooooo true

[lobatt]

oops!
what a luck!
i'm reading your book and found your website~
and i'm in china!

a very good book,think you!

[Mustafa]

raloxifene. all is

[Sure]

Taiwan is part of China!
so pls rewrite Taiwan as "China Taiwan"

[york]

Hi Chris

Interesting book! I am reading Chinese version and English version and at the same time listening to the audio version. Thanks!

Sure,

The Long Tail exists everywhere!
When discussion of the book itself is the "hits", someone is more sensitive about politics. Taiwan=China Taiwan, doesn't it? SO what's the fuss?

[Account Deleted]

True about Indonesia. I even saw a window display of the English language version of the book in a mainly Indonesian-language bookshop the other day. Good stuff.

[China Law Blog]

And if you add in all the sales of your book in counterfeit. . . .

[charlesc]

Chris,
Yes, your book is so hot/HitTail in Taiwan :)

[Liming Zhang]

And my professor is working on a thesis about how you are developing your theory.
So I come here.
Come on,Chris!^-^

[wow power leveling]

To frank,Having known about Long tail in your book or various places, would any writer/publisher/author prefer to have his/her book in the 'miss' (non-hit) list? Absolutely Not!
If people had a candidate that they knew supported enough of the micro or less headline-grabbing issues that the voter did, maybe they would brush aside the campaign rhetoric and vote according to the long tail (since most candidates make the same vague, popular campaign promises anyway, those large issue stances may be seen as nothing more than hot air to most voters).
wow powerleveling lord
of the rings power leveling maple story power
leveling
wow power leveling

[online shopping]

Well done, this is excellent news for you i'm sure.
Many westerners forget that China is different... what a Westerner considers a 'mature' market is really a market that functions by the rules they know and understand. China is long renowned to take ideas and make them their own, and make them work. While it's true that they have their problems (as do we all) they are sharply focused on using the net for business, and many of their rules they see as ways in which to make freedom and ensure the internet contributes to the economy. They have a totally different worldview to western countries – westerners do need to first study all the facts and details, understand the philosophy, before making a critique like some of those we see here on the comments.
I'm a westerner too, by the way.

[Camela Chircle]

Hi. I agree in principal with your ideas at the same time I do believe if someone invents something before others.
saç ekimi
estetik
yaşam koçu
laptop