It’s been pretty interesting to read about the economics of mass-market book publishing w/r/t Kaavya Viswanathan plagiarism to-do. Apparently there are these “book packaging companies” (a/k/a ghostwriters) that publishers outsource their best-selling series (i.e. For Dummies, Sweet Valley Whatever, etc.) to, in order to cut costs and boost volume.
It struck me that this is exactly what execs in most other media would *love* to be able to do, if it just didn’t take so damn many *people* to make a viable video game / movie / album / etc. Or am I wrong about this? Would releasing a new “50 Cent” album or “Michael Bay” movie every month make the “brand” more or less profitable in the long term. I’m kind of leaning towards the latter, but what do I know about the global economics of “entertainment?” (And how many quotation marks is too many, for that matter?)
And also… Yeah, of course this is already happening with stuff like “direct-to-video” Disney sequels and crap-tastic annual releases for successful video game franchises. And let’s not even get started with the glut of pirate DVD mash-ups available from street vendors and so on. And where does it all end? Is the market so starved for new content that they have to turn to these kind of cookie-cutter techniques?
And why does the content have to be “new” anyway? (Ok, I really have to stop extrapolating here, because I’m about one and a half jumps away from equating 2001 with Dr. Pepper Berries & Cream.) Anyway, I’m not trying to be a crotchety bastard here, just felt like floggin the ol’ dead horse for awhile. Thanks for your time! (And yes… Of course I want to try some Berries & Cream =P)