Disclosure: Chris Anderson sent me an Author Review Copy of this book on the condition that I read it and write some kind of bloggy review about it. I would’ve read the book and written this entry anyhow. Mr. Anderson did not make any attempt to influence the kind of review that I would write.

First, I enjoyed the tone of the book. Anderson has a very pleasant writing style, that made me feel at ease, just as when I’m reading one of Stephen Berlin Johnson or Malcolm Gladwell’s books. This is orthogonal to the content, but is still an important consideration for me.

The content. It’s good. Anderson does a very good job of explaining the Long Tail phenomenon – what it is, where it shows up, and why we should care. This is a short book, and so some of the topics aren’t plumbed to their ultimate depths, but for an introductory tome, and one not necessarily intended to be a “How You Can Make Money from the Long Tail” lesson (although there’s some of that), that wouldn’t have been an appropriate tack. In fact, there was more depth of coverage than I’d expected. First, the analysis of how movies, television, and other industries have operated in the past almost guaranteed that there wouldn’t be a Long Tail was interesting – not only have we as consumers been selecting for hits, but so have the industries. I also enjoyed the historical examples of long(ish) tails, notably how catalogue shopping a la Sears was an example of an early long tail industry, just as were supermarkets. Finally, there’s an interesting analysis of why Long Tails arise, and what’s needed for them to work – using real world examples to show why just having a huge pile of undifferentiated junk isn’t good enough.

Anderson’s clearly put a lot of thought into the history, current state, and future of long tail industries, and he’s packaged it in an entertaining and engaging book. Highly recommended for anyone interested in why and how hot new companies like Amazon, Google, and Netflix work.