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Why Doesn't Sci-Fi Hit the Bestseller Lists?
Pomeranian writes "Sci fi readers often deplore book bestseller lists -- because review editors actively ignore many sci-fi sales, since they don't consider that stuff "popular", even though sci-fi titles often sell in far greater numbers than "serious" highbrow lit. But this all might change soon, with the launch of Bookscan: New technology that tracks actual sales at the cash register with greater precision than ever before. When similar technology launched in the music industry ten years ago, it proved the popularity of "new country" and hip-hop overnight. This story in the Washington Post wonders: Will Bookscan do the same thing to sci-fi? NOTE: this is a *shameless* self-aggrandizing plug, because I wrote the Washington Post story! But I figured it'd be of particular interest to Slashdot readers"
CD: While I'd love to see lists that are more reflective of reality, I don't think that a pure unadulterated list is in the interest of the reading public. When I worked at Waldenbooks many moons ago, we would commonly receive copies of one book, Dianetics, from the publisher, with our (And our competitors) sales stickers already on them. While this was an extreme case, it does serve as a cautionary tale about the lengths some will go to manipulate the numbers.
How to get a book to the top of the best-seller lists:
Have your minions go out and repeatedly buy hundreds of copies, returning them and buyying them again.
Dianetics(tm)(c) is, of course, the primary public tome of the Church of Scientology(tm) who will use very creative methods to make their publication appear more popular than reality.
Seriously, have you seen that shit-fest lately? nobody likes sci-fi, because they associate it with this garbage.
And don't even get me started on the "Voyager Trek A Thon" they're having. Jesus fucking christ.
What does this mean? Having never worked at a bookstore, I don't know what it means for a book to come with sales stickers on....
The book was Dianetics, which is the big Scientologist book. The reason they show up at bookstores with price stickers already on them is because of the Scientologists' bestseller plan:
1) Everyone goes out and buys Dianetics.
2) Give the copies of Dianetics to the "church."
3) The church ships the books back out to retail stores.
The end product is that Dianetics goes sky-high in the bestseller lists, without costing the church typical manufacturing costs. And bookstores get copies of the book already with sales stickers on.
The big problems with getting science fiction onto bestseller lists, except for top names like Crichton, is that publishers don't print enough to actually make a dent on the lists. According to Robert J. Sawyer, his initial harcover runs are still only a few thousand for North America (this includes Canada as well), while best sellers usually sell this many just in the first week at least just in the USA. Sawyer's won awards in four countries and is constantly active in science fiction with clinics and book tours, as well as being a former president of the SFWA, but because he's not only Canadian, but a science fiction author, he doesn't get the sales of anything that, say, Grisham or King would get.
And until there's a demonstration that books such as his are marketable in the same lists as King or Grisham books, they won't be printed in the numbers needed to get on those lists.
Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes only are different. -- Earl of Chesterfield
The reason that book isn't Science Fiction, doesn't have anything to do with "literary merit" (whatever that means). It's not Science Fiction because it doesn't have the "science" part. It's fantasy in a futuristic (ignore the "long long time ago") setting.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
David Brin has some great stuff and James P. Hogan's work is great along with all those mentioned above of coarse
I see a few people complaining that there's not enough good science fiction out now; I beg to differ. Off the top of my head, Egan, Vinge, and Bear have all written some great books in the past few years; and have you ever read "Ribofunk" by di Filippo?
For years I've been using the THE INTERNET TOP 100 SF/FANTASY LIST as my reference as to what science fiction I should be reading. It's not as flighty as a "current bestsellers" list is, but new books do work onto the list in due time. And most of the books on the list really do deserve to be there. Over the past five years, I've managed to read probably about half of the books on the list, and have an idea about most of the others. No small task, because the list does change over time. (Although looking at it now, I see a few names I don't recognize, which means it's time to start doing more reading).
I can't get my head around that. Shakespeare is not merely good, he is the Bard. He wrote for everyone, and he invented many words still used today. One estimate found that there were 100,000 unique words used in his works. The average person in America today uses a vocabulary of 1,000 words in their entire lifetime.
But the Colorado Supreme court just unanimously overturned a lower court's decision forcing Tattered Cover to turn over records for an investigation by a Denver-area drug task force. And the protections for public libraries are even stronger than the ones enjoyed by bookstores.
"Hardly used" will not fetch you a better price for your brain.