From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Re: Future Washington Anthology
Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2004 15:22:32 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2004 1:33 PM
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Future Washington Anthology

> Michael Walsh wrote:
>
> > Speaking of such, I am amused to note that Jayson Blair's book (he,
> > the disgraced NY Times scribe who recieved a 7 figure advance for
> > the book), well the book in it's first week of publication has sold
> > . . . 1386 copies out the quarter million printrun.
>
> Am I missing something?  1386 copies sold in a week means a quarter
> million copies will be sold in 3.5 years.  Not great, but not terrible
> either.  Of course rate of sales will fall off with time, but so what
> if it takes twice as long to sell all the copies?  How much does it
> cost to store a book in a warehouse for a year, anyway?  I would
> imagine it would take decades before the cost of storing a book
> exceeds what the book can eventually be sold for.

I think you *are* missing something.   A book like Blair's will have its
greatest sales immediately, and they will fall off thereafter.   The fact
that the book sold only 1386 copies in its first week is pathetic -- it
should have sold tens of thousands -- and unless something occurs to pump
those sales up, the following weeks will show *decreasing* sales.   It will
take an infinitely long time to sell that quarter million at this rate.

Of course, I think that the failure of Blair's book is A Good Thing, and I
applaud the American public for refusing to rush out and buy it.

--Ted White