He observes that a book's success rests on a combination of factors: marketing, media exposure, effective retailing. Every global mega-hit is propped up by scores of commercial failures. It's all too common in the US for a publisher to pay out US $ 100,000 to an author only to see that investment evaporate in lackluster sales. Gray Tan adduces the following example.
他指出，成就暢銷書的原因眾多，得靠行銷手法、媒體曝光、書店通路等交織而成，而在一本暢銷熱賣的大書背後，往往是數十本黯然退場的賠錢作品，光是美國書市，每年由出版社預付 10 萬美元以上高價給作者、卻連成本都回收不了的作品，比比皆是。