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Video games are probably closest to books; in fact, much of software is probably "bookish" in general - lots of it written for particular purposes, sells well enough to have been done, disappears into the long-tail.

A few major breakout successes become historical and bought long after the fact, but the majority do not.



>sells well enough to have been done

Most books almost certainly lose money for the publisher. It's more complicated from the author's perspective given that people write books for a variety of motivations but, certainly, most books are doing well to earn out their advance which can easily be only $1,000 or so.

But, as you say, even those that sell "well enough" initially fall off pretty quickly. And some sorts of titles such as non-fiction about current tech stacks or software versions have a very limited shelf life.




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