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Crashing a book on the financial crash: E-book bestsellers breakdown

Laura Hazard Owen — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:50:22 +0000

This weekly feature tells the backstory of how one e-book became a bestseller, and highlights bestselling titles that are selling more copies in digital than in print.

This week’s featured title

The book: “Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong” by Edward Conard (Penguin/Portfolio, list price $14.99). “Unintended Consequences” is #24 on the New York Times nonfiction e-book bestseller list this week.

What it’s about: A former Bain exec explains how to grow the economy.

How it became a bestseller: “Unintended Consequences” was supposed to go on sale on June 28, but the New York Times Magazine decided to do a feature story on it in the May 6 money issue. Penguin was able to move up the e-book’s publication date to May 7, but the print book won’t be released until June 7.

“Unintended Consequences” on … Amazon | Apple | Barnes & Noble | Google | Kobo

New York Times bestseller list, week of 5/27/12

Here are the titles in the top-35 that appear on the e-book bestseller list, but not on the print bestseller list (click the link to expand the chart).

USA Today bestseller list, week of 5/10/12

USA Today includes all formats and genres in one list and notes which format of a book sold best. Here are the titles in the top-35 where e-books outsold print (click the link to expand the chart).

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This book plays itself on TV: E-book bestsellers breakdown

Laura Hazard Owen — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:16:20 +0000

This new weekly feature tells the backstory of how one e-book became a bestseller, and highlights bestselling titles that are selling more copies in digital than in print.

This week’s featured title

The book: “A Brewing Storm” by Richard Castle (Hyperion, list price $2.99). “A Brewing Storm,” an e-single, is #13 on the New York Times e-book bestseller list this week, and #39 on the USA Today list. As of this writing, it’s #30 on the Nook bestseller list and does not appear on the Kindle bestseller list.

What it’s about: To be clear, Richard Castle is not a real person — he’s a character on the ABC show “Castle,” where he’s played by actor Nathan Fillion. On the show, Castle is a mystery novelist and author of the “Heat Wave” series. Hyperion, which is owned by ABC, released the “Heat Wave” titles as actual books. “A Brewing Storm” is the first in Castle’s “Derrick Storm” CIA series, which he also writes on the show. (Um…get it?) ABC will release two more Derrick Storm e-singles this summer.

How it became a bestseller: “Castle” fans had requested Derrick Storm books, which are often mentioned on the show. Hyperion hopes the “Storm” series will serve as a bridge between seasons 4 and 5 of “Castle” — the season 4 finale aired on May 7.

Members of “Club Castle,” the fan community on ABC’s Castle website, got early access to “A Brewing Storm”‘s cover by completing a trivia challenge March 26-28. They saw the cover before retailers did. ABC.com also posted three free chapters of the book. And the full-length “Heat Wave” was chosen as an Amazon Kindle Daily Deal on May 8, which likely drove readers to the e-single as well.

“A Brewing Storm” on … Amazon ($1.99) | Apple ($2.99) | Barnes & Noble ($1.97) | Google ($2.51) | Kobo ($2.99)

New York Times bestseller list, week of 5/20/12

Here are the titles in the top-35 that appear on the e-book bestseller list, but not on the print bestseller list (click the link to expand the chart).

USA Today bestseller list, week of 5/3/12

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E-book bestsellers breakdown: I married a billionaire

Laura Hazard Owen — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:43:38 +0000

This new weekly feature tells the backstory of how one e-book became a bestseller, and highlights bestselling titles that are selling more copies in digital than in print.

This week’s featured title

The book: “The Marriage Bargain” by Jennifer Probst (Entangled, $2.99). “The Marriage Bargain” is #11 on the New York Times e-book bestseller list this week, and #20 on the USA today list.

Copies of “The Marriage Bargain” sold: 152,668

What it’s about: A bookstore owner casts a love spell to save her home. When a billionaire offers her a marriage in name only, she accepts, but neither bargained for love.

How it hit the bestseller list: Probst, the author of several erotic and contemporary romance titles, built up her presence on social media months before the book was published in February. She did a 20-stop blog tour in early 2012 to promote the book. Entangled bought a Goodreads ad and “steady positive reviews began to trickle in from various outlets.”

A sequel, “The Marriage Trap,” comes out in June, with a third book in the series, “The Marriage Mistake,” due in the fall.

“The Marriage Bargain” on … Amazon |Barnes & Noble | Kobo

New York Times bestseller list, week of 5/13/12

Here are the titles in the top-35 that appear on the e-book bestseller list, but not on the print bestseller list (click the link to expand the chart).

USA Today bestseller list, week of 5/3/12

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Nope, independent work isn’t behind rising inequality, says expert

Jessica Stillman — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:00:38 +0000

Last week we highlighted a piece in Canadian magazine Maclean’s that explored the question of whether the rise of independent work was contributing to rising income inequality. And while I argued that it was pretty hard to see how independent work rather than government policy and the globalization of the evolution of tech was the root cause of increasing inequality, the post closed by pondering whether the growing number of independent workers was in some way contributing to the widening gap between the haves and have-nots once the process was under way.

I didn’t have any solid data to answer that question, but one reader did: Steve King, a partner at consulting firm Emergent Research. King shared his insights on coworking with WebWorkerDaily recently and shot us an email suggesting we check out his firm’s research on the question of inequality and independent work. In a blog post explaining his company’s position on the issue, King states unequivocally that there is no causal relationship between the two trends:

As part of the 2011 State of Independence study we looked at independent worker income. We found median per capita income for U.S. independent workers to be roughly the same as the median per capita income for workers overall.

We also found a fair amount of income inequality among independent workers. In particular 3 overlapping groups of independent workers significantly out earn other independents: (1) older independents (55+), (2) independents who have been independent longer than 5 years, and (3) independents that are highly satisfied with independent work.

In other words, income inequality among independent workers somewhat mirrors overall income inequality.

Our explanation — which is based on our interviews and other qualitative work — is independent workers with the right skill sets and experience are thriving and are much more financially successful than those who don’t. This is very similar to what is happening across the workforce in general.

Because of this, we don’t see the shift to independent work as a cause of income inequality.

Instead, Emergent Research feels that independent work and inequality are rising at similar trajectories because both trends are powered by the same phenomenon. Recommending former Labor Secretary Robert Reich’s book Supercapitalism for those who want a deep dive into the subject, King pulls a quote from the book to explain the underlying causes of both trends: “The crisis marks the triumph of consumers and investors over workers and citizens.”

Maclean’s view that “independent jobs are bad and we should return to a world of traditional jobs is widely held,” King commented. “But it’s not going to happen. The shift towards independent work is too far along and too powerful.”

Has King convinced you?

Image courtesy of Flickr user BlaisOne

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