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Probably the greatest marketing invention, in the book industry, is not the creation of an ISBN but rather, the creation of “personalized recommendations” that vary depending on a user’s tastes. All I told Amazon was that I owned a few Chinese classics, some IT training manuals, and some political philosophy, and it returned back a wonderful wealth of potential knowledge.

But which books have the keenest insight and the best long term-profitability? Classics seem to reap more profit than any other book. Bestsellers often flare and burn out, often as quickly in a period of four seasons. A choice of publisher is also important, but it seems that once an author has chosen the right press, the author can keep rolling out new knowledge. Check out Donald A. Norman.

Statistically, Borders in Arcadia needs to restock on its Chinese literature and philosophy if it ever wants a few more million dollars over the next decades; the shelves are almost empty of Chinese classics and covered with New Age meditation and Indian and Tibetan Buddhist books; all that remains are a few tacky translations of the I-Jing and a book titled “Daoism for Dummies.”

What is the most efficient and profitable method of distributing information (books)? Should books be sold by merchants (bookstores), shipped from an online catalog or store, or sold as bits and bytes of information as an e-Book? Here:

http://www.idpf.org/doc_library/industrystats.htm

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=14107

http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=133616

Clearly, the traditional method generates more monetary velocity, as they say, when the book exchanges hands. Information wise, it would determine whether if the book is prized by the owner, or passed quickly after readings.

Also, the method of selling rare and collectible books has its own industry, and a markup on the price within a few years a book is out of publication reaps its own rewards. Books, unlike most technology, do not lose value over time when kept in good condition, and have over a +100% profit margin. Special editions of the book generate even more revenue. Although books are not copied by hand, imagine how much the Ma Wang Dui Daodejing texts or the Gutenberg Bibles are worth! Creating such a mechanism for efficient sales or lending would lead to a library, which could be a public library or a private corporation with an online catalog. All that is needed is a group of friends and a few bookshelves.