Hits and the Long Tail

A hundred and 35 words account for half of all the usage of words in the english language. The other 500 thousand also account for half, each one a little bit. Most ed shelf space institutions like barnes and noble or block buster have limited shelf space. So what are they going to stock? They're going to stock the hits. Living on the long tail isn't nearly as lucrative and powerful as owning the long tail.