出版与作家生涯2016observer.com
成为“畅销书作家”需要什么？3美元和5分钟
What Does It Take to Be a ‘Best-Selling Author’? $3 and 5 Minutes
导读
这篇文章讲一个低成本操作：作者用一本内容只是脚的照片、只卖出几本的书，花约3美元、几分钟就拿到亚马逊某个细分分类的畅销榜第一，从而包装成“畅销书作者”。对写作者来说，它提醒我们“畅销”标签往往取决于分类、时段和算法口径，不能直接等同于作品质量或真实销量。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
看到或使用“畅销书作者”时，先追问口径：是总榜还是细分分类、统计多长时间、实际卖了多少本。
- 02
榜单和标签可以被短期销量、单一分类、亲友购买或评论等方式操作，选书和宣传都别把它当作唯一质量证明。
- 03
如果自己要写作者简介，尽量把成绩说清楚，例如“某平台某分类某时段第一”，比空泛的“畅销书作者”更可信。
- 04
短期榜单能带来注意力，但写作者更应把精力放在内容、真实读者反馈和长期口碑上。
HN 评论精选
“畅销”等头衔和标签普遍通胀，很多只是算法或短期操作的结果，不必太当真。
唉，就像我打800电话时遇到的每个人都是“客户主管”，我买的每个产品都是“获奖产品”，我吃的每片披萨都是“世界闻名”，我合作的每家公司都是“行业领袖”……我也是自己公司的创始人、总裁、CEO和老板，而这家公司基本上就是我和我的笔记本电脑，偶尔接点外包活。看，这是他们算法里的一个愚蠢漏洞，迟早会被修好；也许到第二小时没人买，这个标签就掉了。还有别的方法钻亚马逊出版系统的空子，比如 Tim Ferriss 在书开卖时把免费副本寄给别人，让他们留评论。这真的重要吗？
IgorPartola查看英文原文
Aww, just like every person I call at an 800 number is a Customer Executive, every product I buy is Award Winning, every slice of pizza I eat is World Famous, every company I work with is an Industry Leader, etc. This is also how I am the founder, president, CEO, and owner of my company, which is basically just me and my laptop doing contract work every once in a while. Look, this is a stupid bug in their algorithm, and will probably be fixed at some point. Or perhaps the label falls off during hour number 2 when nobody is buying it. There are other ways to hack the Amazon publishing system, like Tim Ferris did when he sent free copies of his book out to people so that they would leave reviews when it went on sale. Does it really matter?
别迷信畅销标签，用权威文学奖项和严肃写作作为选书信号更可靠。
作者说得对……在他的例子里，成为“畅销书作者”并不需要多高的才华，甚至完全不需要。我不关注“畅销书”标签。很久以前我就意识到，我想读书的时间远比我希望的少，所以我打算把有限时间用来读我能拿到的最好的书。找好书时我肯定不会从亚马逊开始，而是浏览主要文学奖获奖名单，从中挑选：普利策奖、国家图书奖、笔会福克纳小说奖、曼布克奖……仅举几例。即使题材有点超出我日常兴趣，我也还没失望过。
Outdoorsman查看英文原文
The author is right...it doesn't take a high level of talent, or any at all in his example, to become a "best seller"... I pay no attention to "best seller" labels... I realized quite some time back that my reading time is far more limited than I would like for it to be...I intend to spend the time I do have reading the best I can get my hands on... When looking for a good read I most certainly do not start at Amazon... Rather, I look through lists of the major literary prize winners and select something from them... Pulitzer Prize Winners, National Book Award winners, Pen Faulkner Award for Fiction winners, Man Booker Prize winners...just to name a few... I've yet to be disappointed, even when the topics are somewhat outside my everyday interests and hobbies... A list of the major awards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_awards#American_literature There's something there for every taste...and you'll benefit from knowing that someone took a great deal of time and care with their efforts...someone writing seriously...
“畅销”常只是细分分类或平台排名，含金量有限；应理解口径，不必把标签当特权或质量证明。
坦白说，我也犯过这个毛病，算是吧。我确实写过一本书，销量也确实超过3本，现在我把“畅销书作者”写进简历，因为我的书有时在某分类排第一，有时在 oreilly.com 排第一。到目前为止没人因此不满（也许没人看过我的简历），我想是因为他们足够聪明，知道一本“畅销”的数据科学书并不是在《纽约时报》榜单上压过斯蒂芬·金、《五十度灰》和《饥饿游戏》的那种畅销，而是在“图书/计算机/数据与数据分析”之类分类里畅销。把我的偏见摆出来后，我很难对这个人做的事生气，因为：……“哇，你是畅销书作者？你写了什么？”“不是书，是我脚的一张照片。”“哦，这有点奇怪。卖了多少本？”“三本。”……我是说，又不是说有个特殊俱乐部，“畅销书作者”能让你插队什么的。有吗？如果有，请告诉我。
joelgrus查看英文原文
Confession: I am guilty of this. Well, sort of. I actually did write a book, and it did sell more than 3 copies, and now I put "best selling author" on my resume, on account of my book being #1 in its category (sometimes) and #1 on oreilly.com (sometimes). So far no one has gotten bent out of shape about it (or maybe no one has looked at my resume), I assume because they're smart enough to know that a "best selling" data science book is not on the NYT list outselling Stephen King and 50 Shades of Gray and Hunger Games, it's bestselling among "Books / Computers / Data & Data Analytics" or whatever. Having put my bias on the table, I have a hard time getting worked up about what this guy did, for the following reason: "Whoa, you're a bestselling author? What did you write?" "It's not a book, it's a picture of my foot." "Oh. That's kind of strange. How many copies did it sell?" "Three." "..." I mean, it's not like there's some kind of special club where "best selling author" allows you to cut in line or anything. Is there? If there is, please let me know.
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