XPost: rec.arts.sf.written
From: acwheele@optonline.net
Stephen Graham wrote:
> Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) wrote:
> > Matthias Warkus wrote:
> >> Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) schrieb:
> >>> highfalutin' "lit'ry" SF writer of the sort that has a loud,
> >>> outspoken following but really isn't READABLE by ordinary people.
> >>
> >> More "ordinary people" read "lit'ry" fiction than SF, you know.
> >
> > Outside of school? I doubt it. Unless you're classing Tom Clancy,
> > John Grisham, and romance novels as lit'ry, which I don't.
>
> Louise Erdrich, as an example, is selling to someone in reasonable
> quantities, though I don't know what the precise numbers are.
"Precise" is such a loaded term, but here's what I can reveal.
Erdrich's most recent novel is _The Plague of Doves_, published this
May. According to the standard US book-sales reporting mechanism, it has
sold, to date, about 28,000 copies in hardcover. That's quite
respectable, but not immense.
For one comparison, Jim Butcher's _Small Favor_, published at about the
same time, has sold about three times as many copies.
For another, Raymond Feist's _Diary of a Mad God_, also from about the
same time, has sold roughly what _Plague of Doves_ has.
And remember that, just as for every Feist or Butcher, there are a dozen
writers selling less well in the SF field, the same applies even more so
to "literary" fiction. In particular, every year sees at least a dozen
"exquisite" "gem-like" first novels that sink without a trace. SFF
writers, on the other hand, generally get three novels to fail with.
Check out the New York Times bestsellers lists --
-- to see what's really
selling; most of the time, most of it is literary comfort food of one
variety or other. Sea Wasp is a *very* typical reader (except for being
male, of course) -- though everyone has their own ideas of comfort.
--
Andrew Wheeler
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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