Wednesday, January 26, 2011

LITMEME: I just bought, for my Kindle, The Hangman's Daughter, by Oliver Potzsch, or possibly Patzsch (depending on which web site you're reading). I bought it because it seemed right up my alley, but also because it's currently #1 on the list of Kindle bestsellers (and has been in the Kindle top 100 since its publication in mid-December).

This is weird, right? I had literally never heard of this book until I bought it. As far as I can tell, it's not on any New York Times bestseller lists, and Barnes & Noble says that it doesn't even have any copies in stock. There isn't even a Wikipedia page. How could there not be a Wikipedia page for a best-selling book?

I'm sure somebody can explain it to me, but I'm baffled about what could explain how the book is catching fire electronically but doesn't even merit a mention elsewhere.

12 comments:

  1. lauri9:57 PM

    Amazon has been promoting it on their homepage as part of the big kindle ad. So now it's a bestseller on amazon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lauri beat me to the punch. Don't know how much it matters, but they've been showing the Kindle with that book "on" it for a while. Or they were, at least.

    ReplyDelete
  3. christy in nyc7:22 AM

    It's published by Amazon. While it does seem to be available some other places in paperback, (quick assessment: borders.com claims to have it, bn.com has it listed but not avaiable, indiebound.com does not even have it listed), I would bet that the vast majority of copies sold of this title have been Amazon Kindle editions, with almost all of the remaining copies being paperbacks sold by Amazon.

    So the overall sales numbers could be tiny compared to a traditionally published book, but still rank the highest for Amazon. This will be true for anything that's either hard to find outside Amazon or is very cheap or free on Amazon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. RandomRanter9:01 AM

    It is my understanding that there are really active Kindle forums on Amazon and thery are very willing to purchase after author discussion and or other word of mouth.

    ReplyDelete
  5. RandomRanter9:01 AM

    It is my understanding that there are really active Kindle forums on Amazon and thery are very willing to purchase after author discussion and or other word of mouth.

    ReplyDelete
  6. RandomRanter9:02 AM

    It is my understanding that there are really active Kindle forums on Amazon and thery are very willing to purchase after author discussion and or other word of mouth.

    ReplyDelete
  7. isaac_spaceman12:04 PM

    Yeah, I'm enjoying it.  But if Amazon is the publisher, wouldn't it want to publish it in print too?  

    I mean, I suppose that Amazon could be using it like video game platforms used to use tentpole games -- you can't play Halo unless you get an XBox; you can't read Hangman's Daughter unless you get a Kindle.  But that would require (a) way more promotion than it's getting, since the book does not seem to have widespread media penetration; and (b) a determination that the profits from increased Kindle sales (and the corresponding advantage in the fight to be the standard) are greater than the potential profits from making the book a general, rather than electronic-only, best-seller. 

    ReplyDelete
  8. J. Bowman12:52 PM

    This has nothing to do, I assume, with The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, which is currently sitting on the w's bedside table. I guess the Hangman was pretty frisky,

    ReplyDelete
  9. bella wilfer1:29 PM

    So is the book actually any good?

    ReplyDelete
  10. isaac_spaceman3:23 PM

    I'm enjoying it so far.  I'm not too far in, but it sets up the main characters and the period pretty efficiently.  Also, since I just finished the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, it's nice to be reading a book that doesn't have that series's peculiarly bad writing and that doesn't star a sexually irresistable middle-aged out-of-shape chain-smoking socialist slob with no money and an insistence upon open relationships.  Quite a catch, ladies.

    ReplyDelete
  11. bella wilfer3:57 PM

    The worst part of the Dragon Tattoo series is how often Larsson unironically discusses what a catch Blomkvist indeed is.  Isaac, you put it perfectly in the above comment.  Gross.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Paul Tabachneck12:13 PM

    Isaac: I know!  I could not believe how much tail Mikael Blomkvist pulled down in just three books.  And when you think about how some of his lovers are linked, it's.... Well, it's downright skillful macking, is what it is. 

    ReplyDelete