that-steve asked:
Do you find that a big social media love for a character almost never translates into sales? The Carol Corps made me think of this since they're this big presence online and yet Captain Marvel sells nowhere near it should if they were actually buying your product...
Never is too strong a term, but as you say, strong online support doesn’t always translate into strong sales. Some of that, I think, is that it’s easier to generate online support—and the number of people to have what appears to be a huge movement online isn’t enough to move the needle all that greatly in terms of sales.
For example, if there are, let’s say, 1000 active Carol Corps supporters, that’s a lot. A lot of tumblrs generated, a lot of comments made, a lot of people to show up for meet-ups at conventions. That’s a big group by any standard.
Yet, 1000 additional copies sold isn’t going to make a book suddenly a massive hit. The scale there is different.
It doesn’t mean that those devoted 1000 people aren’t of great value, or that they’re wasting their energies or anything. It simply points out the difference when shifting perspective from one place to another.
