Making Light: The life expectancies of books:
Have you ever heard of Harold Bell Wright? How about Mazo de la Roche? Mary Roberts Rinehart, Lloyd Douglas, Irving Bacheller, Frank Yerby, Coningsby Dawson, Warwick Deeping? These were all notable authors in their day. Some of their books were no better than they should be, while others were genuinely praiseworthy; but all of them spent some time perched on top of the commercial heap.
All gone, now. We shall none of us escape obscurity.
Teresa’s widely-cited musings on the life expectancy of books is full of insight and information (and the Usual Suspects in the comments sparkle as well).
Her piece comes on the heels of this by Tim O’Reilly on the economics of publishing, especially for short lifespan books like his.
Seems to me there’s good reason to read both, but I’m too tired now.
<update> I meant to say there was some overlap to be explored, given the two different markets (popular fiction and tech books). But I was too sleepy to even get that right.