Comments on: Know thy market

By: Pick your POV carefully « Snarkmarket

Pick your POV carefully « Snarkmarket — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 01:57:10 +0000

[…] writing I always enjoy, just posted a new piece about publishing and, to a degree, the structure of content markets. I want to zoom in on one point: What about iTunes? Doesn’t that show people will pay for […]

By: Robin Sloan

Robin Sloan — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:54:03 +0000

Whoah. We have trackbacks now. Nice work, Matt.

By: Hearts, Hidden and Emerging | Taylor Davidson

Hearts, Hidden and Emerging | Taylor Davidson — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:30:52 +0000

[…] Sloan, Know thy market, commenting on markets such as the Internet, the Kindle and the App Store: For the past few years […]

By: Taylor Davidson

Taylor Davidson — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:23:20 +0000

The brilliant part is that the form and underlying economics of the web makes it an easier, cheaper and better way to reach one's "addressable market" (i.e. anyone that should or would be interested in what one is creating) than any other form of communication. It's incredibly powerful and meaningful to re-frame our goals from "appealing to many" to "being loved by a few", and it's even more liberating to think that the economics of the Internet make it possible to succeed with that re-framed mindset. (And you're experiencing that first-hand with your Kickstarter project...)

By: Saheli

Saheli — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:15:06 +0000

This is the kind of thing that always makes me want to cat burglarize Publisher Weekly’s filing cabinets. There must be similar good estimates for sub-genre readers, regional distribution, etc.

By: Matthew Battles

Matthew Battles — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:11:34 +0000

The Drake’s Equation for publishing… perfect! That’s why I put this stuff out there; always looking for the remix that reveals.

By: Matt Thompson

Matt Thompson — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:04:01 +0000

Incidentally, not only does the Barnes & Noble Book Review exist, it also happens to be quite good. I first encountered it in an Ezra Klein post, and I find myself back there now and then when I have an undirected urge to feed my Kindle. The recent redesign ups the serendipity factor quite a bit. As for the essay, what I'd really like to know, Robin, is whether reading it totally whetted your excitement for approaching the lumbering publishing industry from a creative, bottom-up angle. Because reading it, I found myself getting terribly excited for you.