From time to time, I've told people that self-publishing a novel is one of the best ways to assure your anonymity in the ever-increasing surveillance society. Hardly anyone, it seems, makes their own decisions on what to read. Everyone wants to read what everyone else is already reading.
Further evidence of this all-too-human tendency -- essentially we are all sheep, hoping their is a leader around somewhere -- can be found in an article about declining book sales when best-seller lists are discontinued. It comes from an online publication called The Outline.
About three months ago, the article notes, The New York Times eliminated 10 of its 24 categorized best-seller lists, in effect getting rid of a source of very influential free marketing for book publishers. Well, maybe it wasn't really free. Publishers have traditionally heavily advertised books on such lists and print ads have been steadily declining, so perhaps what we have is a vicious cycle.
"It’s difficult to say how much the Best Sellers list changes impacted sales, but the numbers don’t look good. Sales are hurting for several of the eliminated categories as of April 2017, with graphic novels 5 percent down in sales relative to this period last year, romance sales down 10 percent, and mass market sales down 6 percent, according to the NPD Group (formerly Nielsen Bookscan)," the article in The Outlook said.
If you are interested in this topic in more detail, please click on the hyperlink above and read the article.
On the other hand, if you are one of those rare people who DON'T read books just because everyone else seems to be reading them, check out this link.
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