This is an aside titled 'Now it’s easier to sell books than indie records' dated 6/5/08
The band No Age is everywhere: Pitchfork, the blogs, a million myspace pageviews … but they’ve only sold 8,365. (From IM discussion posting: “more people at one NYC show than bought the record across the country”) Catbirdseat says this is a good thing to keep in mind “if you’re perhaps thinking of starting up a new label and gracing your artists with $20,000 advances or etc: you may not end up getting that return on investment you’re hoping for.” Let’s compare that with publishing. Estimating figures similar to his N+1 coeditor, (Benjamin Kunkel’s novel Indecision) Keith Gessen will probably sell 35,000 copies of All the Sad Young Literary Men. And he’s not nearly as famous as No Age — maybe 20-40 people showed up to his book tour readings in several cities. Of course, there’s no such thing as an iTunes dollar-per-short story (although that would be kind of cool, wouldn’t it?) But it’s a good example of how it’s difficult to make money off creative work alone. The record itself might not make a profit, but the recognition leads to moneymaking opportunities — modeling, coolhunting, or selling out your best song to a car commercial.
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