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The creative people are very good at what they do, but they are working in a terribly inefficient industry that is not responsive to internal or external demand
by ilamont 4y ago
The creative people are very good at what they do, but they are working in a terribly inefficient industry that is not responsive to internal or external demands. Many titles are still developed based on "gut," trend chasing, or agent/publisher backroom connections, and the result is a failure rate that could not be tolerated in many other industries.
Following the recent PRH/DOJ antitrust testimony, an NPD analyst said that of 45,571 frontlist ISBNs from the top 10 U.S. publishers in 2021, 15% sold less than 12 copies. Another 51% sold between 12 and 999 copies.
- ghaff 4y agoMost VC investments lose money too. And I don't see all of Netflix' data leading to consistently compelling/popular original content. It certainly is true that publishers often work on the basis of gut and lunches. That was the case with me when I got a publisher contract. (Met the editor at an event dinner then worked out details over coffee in London.) But it's also not clear to me that data has revolutionized getting creative content out in the world to the degree once promised. Publishing a book is also pretty cheap compared to getting into production with a film.