Quote:
Originally Posted by QuantumIguana
People have a finite amount of money, but that doesn't mean they buy a fixed number of books. If they are led to a new genre by following Rowling, they may well simply read more books. The money has to come from somewhere, but it doesn't necessarily mean they will buy less books. Perhaps they stay home and read instead of going out to the movies. You can buy a couple books for the cost of a movie.
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All of this could be true. There is some actual evidence that total books sales increase a bit when there are humongous best-sellers:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapt...rcent-for-2012
What I don't see in links such as the above is whether book sales increase, or even stay steady, in years of stupendous best-sellers --
subtracting out the super best-sellers. The optimists in this thread, like yourself, are making the latter claim.
How about this for a different criticism of the Shepherd thesis:
Just as some folks love to find unknown authors, others gravitate towards celebrities. If J. K. Rowling and Suzanne Collins bow out, others will fill their place, and the mid-list will remain the mid-list.