Nowhere am I arguing that a book that sells 200 copies is the mainstream.
But the CNN article mentions two authors who went from small press/POD to success that can only be characterized as "mainstream" after the publishers who are supposedly representing the "mainstream" told them they lacked the appeal needed to sell to the "mainstream"; they only got larger book deals when it became apparent that the publishers had misjudged their appeal and relegated them to "niches".
J.K. Rowling's personal story is similar... her allegedly bland, allegedly generic little fantasy book wasn't "supposed" to have the appeal that it did.
What the publishers are addressing is the largest single segment that anybody's bothering to address. There's no natural boundary that marks this segment as a unique beast distinct from the rest of the market... decades of habit and convention have simply codified and solidified what they think their market is. There are mountains of wasted opportunity there, as J.K. Rowling's unpredicted runaway success (particularly among "non-readers") demonstrates.
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2009-04-07 11:19 pm (UTC)But the CNN article mentions two authors who went from small press/POD to success that can only be characterized as "mainstream" after the publishers who are supposedly representing the "mainstream" told them they lacked the appeal needed to sell to the "mainstream"; they only got larger book deals when it became apparent that the publishers had misjudged their appeal and relegated them to "niches".
J.K. Rowling's personal story is similar... her allegedly bland, allegedly generic little fantasy book wasn't "supposed" to have the appeal that it did.
What the publishers are addressing is the largest single segment that anybody's bothering to address. There's no natural boundary that marks this segment as a unique beast distinct from the rest of the market... decades of habit and convention have simply codified and solidified what they think their market is. There are mountains of wasted opportunity there, as J.K. Rowling's unpredicted runaway success (particularly among "non-readers") demonstrates.