The Long Tail of Books

Wired magazine had an article in this month's issue by Chris Anderson called The Long Tail. I believe the article will be online at www.wired.com on July 6th, but not sure, but you can garner a lot of info from his blog . His theory (which is the most buzzed about theory since Thomas Friedman said the world was flat) is that Internet shoppers are exposed to millions, billions, trillions of choices and that instead of a true blockbuster product demand, with a company selling oodles of stuff of one kind, we have a shift to what he calls "long tail demand". Think of a curve like a comet, where the bulk of product is sold not in the big honker of the beginning, but in the fat part at the end. Instead of selling a lot of one, a company can make money by selling a little of a lot of stuff.

So, how does this relate to books? Mr. Anderson extrapolates this theory to the music industry, but I think it's also equally applicable to the publishing industry. (Mr. Anderson spoke at the Book Industry Study Group this year, so others think it's equally applicable, too). Publishers can focus on an area of the market and fill that niche. Ellora's Cave has found a void in the market and filled it. As other firms work to provide niche-fill, market share of one firm will erode.

So how does this relate to an author? For all authors, this is a scary new world, because we produce a product of one and there are millions of titles available and it takes quite a bit for garner readers, much less new readers. An author needs to provide a unique niche in order to differentiate themselves from the others. Voice alone doesn't cut it. My theory: an author fills a niche by using characters instead. The series -- Books connected via returning characters.

As a reader, I have a love/hate connection with series. I started reading romance with Johanna Lindsey's Mallory's series, love Nora Robert's trilogies, and just bought (and read) Julia Quinn's latest Bridgerton's saga. I have trouble following series that require me to read and keep up with them every six months over several years. My reading time isn't that easily available, so I fall behind and then read a book and go, "Eh? Who's that?" and realized I missed Book 24, last out in November 1996, and thus, another series bites the dust.

As an author, I like writing structured series. Books that have story arcs that carry over several titles, but that do have a beginning, middle, end. I need that structure. Some people don't.

I do believe that for a select few authors, the author is the niche, but I think the author who can jump from stand-alone book to stand-alone book is few and far between and getting fewer and farther between.

Enter the series.

Just my theory.