If anybody still believes the book publishing industry remains a cultural haven in this numbers-obsessed era, this should shatter their illusions. In Motoko Rich's article on Tom Wolfe's new book deal, there's a hugely compromising nugget of data. I am Charlotte Simmons, the dapper author's most recent blockbuster, had a print run of 1,500,000. Or so the publisher's publicists claimed, in an effort to build excitement for the 2004 novel. A self-fulfiling prophecy? Nope. The publishers actually shipped more like 800,000 copies, and the book eventually sold only 293,000, a respectable number in these illiterate times, but only about a fifth of the notional print run. (The disappearing book sales are represented graphically to the left.) Book publishers are no different from their counterparts in the magazine and newspaper industries: as print declines, so the claims, whether of print runs or circulation figures, become ever more inflated and ever more desperate. (Thanks, John, for the idea.)

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