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A comment on Whale Watching: Many companies earn a huge portion of sales from a few customers. Parent comment

Re:Whale Watching: Many companies earn a huge portion of sal... by sliverstorm on Saturday December 09, 2017 @02:16AM (#15884687)
He's basically pointing out that JK Rowling's success partly benefited from a feedback loop. For example, once everybody was talking about it, free publicity.

If somebody else had all the same skills and wrote another book that was just as good, there probably still wouldn't really be room for both of them. Only one series can be the pop culture youth fiction darling at a time.

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Re:Whale Watching: Many companies earn a huge portion of sal... by Sacho on Saturday December 09, 2017 @05:15AM (#15885130)
Now you're back to the article! JK Rowling's success story is singular because the masses don't have oodles of disposable income. This is why companies are finding niches where they can earn income from "whales" rather than having to score the masses lottery.
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Re:Whale Watching: Many companies earn a huge portion of sal... by sliverstorm on Saturday December 09, 2017 @11:25AM (#15886455)
JK Rowling's success story is singular because the masses don't have oodles of disposable income

Hardly, she could still be a huge success story if she split that pie of disposable income halfway with another author who was her equal- but public attention doesn't really work like that, is the problem.

But targeting whales to avoid the masses lottery, yes, I'm with you & the article there.

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