#123: The Challenges of Selling Books

This week's podcast opens with the sad news of Harry Mathews's passing, then goes deep on Winter Institute, and a couple really long essays Chad wrote for Three Percent. There's a lot that gets unpacked in this episode, from anticipatory lists and market acceleration, to the way that bookstores choose which titles to stock and how comp titles work.   Here are links to specific things covered in this podcast:   Harry Mathews in the Paris Review List of Winter Institute programs and authors Reader Selection and Market Acceleration and The Structural Inequality of Comp Titles The Millions Great 2017 Book Preview   This week's music is "I'm Gonna Live Forever (If it Kills Me)" by William Tyler.   Also, a reminder, since we changed our podcast feed, you may need to unsubscribe and resubscribe to the correct feed in iTunes at that link, or right here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/three-percent-podcast/id434696686   Or, you can just put this feed link into whichever is your podcast app of choice: http://threepercent.libsyn.com/rss   And, as always, feel free to send any and all comments or questions to [email protected].    Also, if you like the podcast, tell a friend and rate us or leave a review on iTunes. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com