Friday, September 17, 2010

Would You Buy Essays Like You Buy U2 Singles from iTunes?


Scribner is hoping so. The Los Angeles Times is reporting that they're going to start selling Chuck Klosterman's essays for 99 cents each.

From the piece...

All of these essays have been available elsewhere -- many were first published in magazines and later appeared in Klosterman's collections "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs," "Eating the Dinosaur," "Chuck Klosterman IV" and "Fargo Rock City."

Can Klosterman, with his high name recognition and strong opinions, lure readers to purchase older material for a modest price? Will well-loved essays sell better than those that are less known?

The essay collections are already available as ebooks, but now Scribner has also parceled them out and repackaged them by theme. Typically, essay collections wind up being chronological, but these sets -- 10 to 14 essays for $7.99 -- are grouped by topic. There is "Chuck Klosterman on Sports," "Chuck Klosterman on Media and Culture," "Chuck Klosterman on Rock" and so on.


And, here's some U2:

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