Thread: Is SF dying?
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Old 02-13-2015, 03:14 PM   #310
BearMountainBooks
Maria Schneider
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Not that I care a whit about this argument, but sales figures alone do not denote the number of people who read a book--or the number who thought it was good/excellent/deserving of an award. Sales can be an indicator, but I can testify as a publisher that we authors need a certain number of sales from habitual BUYERS who actually rarely read because hitting that group is very important to rankings and continued visibility.

A popular book being talked about can be a self-perpetuating success--people buy products for many reasons and one of those reasons is to be in the "in" crowd or because the product is familiar to them--they have heard of it, it must be good/quality.

As reported by Kobo in the "How far do people read" thread--note that Gone Girl sold millions but by one metric, was only finished by 40 percent of buyers.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=255556

So while sales is one metric, it is not necessarily a good metric for "this book is good/great" which is why there are awards like the Hugo, etc.
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