I agree. But a few more weeks or so and the Harry Potter frenzy will lessen, at least I hope. I've found a few journalistic articles on various blog sites and news sites.

Its a bad market for all writers ("serious" or otherwise) just because of the sheer volume of wannabees, hopefuls, and unknown brilliants who live out of power lunch range, but the publishing business is still way healthier than the music biz, where large portions of the target audience dozed off or wandered away out of sheer boredom... At least Potter and Patterson fans are still showing up in droves for their favorite cheap thrills...

Kevin A. Lewis, interesting about the music biz... do you think "the long tail" has failed musicians? Does it actually work for authors?

In response to The Long Tail, I think it's dangerous to rely on The Long Tail soley as a path to success. The Long Tail is something to be utilized, not relied upon. Absolutely, in my opinion, The Long Tail works for authors. As a book video maker and distributor we've seen The Long Tail work, sometimes dramatically. The Long Tail can work as an electronic word of mouth, help boost list placement and help boost sales. The comment "A newspaper has actually figured out that if you want readers for your book section, it helps to focus your book section on... readers" made me smile. Wow! What a concept! Using book video (and yes, this may be a little self serving, so I'll just not mention what company I work for) on social sites to appeal to readers and POTENTIAL readers is a brilliant idea and I'm often surprised to find publishers who don't suppport it. Here is a great way to apply The Long Tail to promote books. Not just a single books, but to promote reading as entertainment overall. We work with NY Times bestselling authors, but we've also seen great successes with our clients who are ebook authors. Technology now supports innovative marketing that was never available to the publishing industry before. So, if you're not selling Harry P...uh...He Who Shall Not Be Named...you can still get the public to talk about you, your book or your story.

Please email me... thereadingwriter at aol dot com... I'd love to hear more about your company. Great comment, and thanks for reading.