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Originally Posted by QuantumIguana
I have not claimed that book sales increase, only that it is not demonstrated that sales of other books will decrease as a result of a big name author moving into a new genre, that it is not demonstrated that people have a fixed amount of money that they will spend on books. The money has to come from somewhere, but it doesn't have to come from other books.
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I'd have to agree that nothing much has been demonstrated.
In my country, we do know that book reading, while it does go up a bit some years, is in long-term decline:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...-lover/283222/
My link ends with this less than stirringly optimistic summary of the data:
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Perhaps the worst of the fall is over.
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Of course, people can read less but still buy more books. Lots of things are possible. Including that when someone buys your book, they are choosing not to buy another book. I admit that it would take a lot more careful analysis of the data (and a lot more data access) than I have to prove who is right -- whether it be the optimists (everyone else in this thread), or the pessimist (me).