THE MARKET: Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions by Christian Lander will be published on Tuesday, July 1. How many weeks will it spend on the New York Times bestseller list? Each $10 dollars of the share price represents one week on the list. Shares bought at $40, for example, would be worth $90 if the book spends 9 weeks in succession in the top 15 of the list. If the book doesn’t make the list in either of the first two weeks in which it’s eligible, shares will be worth $0. Trading will cease and the market will be cashed out when the book exits the list.
THE DATA: “Stuff White People Like,” based on the popular website of the same name, sold at auction for a reported $300,000 in March. Random House is betting that 31,629,817 (but who’s counting?!) “hits” will translate into 75,000 or more copies sold according to Sarah Nelson, the editor of Publisher’s Weekly.
OUR TAKE: Try as they might, Random House couldn’t rush the book out fast enough to avoid the backlash, or at least a few snarky expressions of doubt from people who are almost assuredly white themselves. Sayeth Ron Hogan, of publishing blog GalleyCat fame, “I was shocked and amazed that they got that much money for a concept that Martin Mull had written a book on back in 1985.” Zing!

LEARN MORE:
See the “Stuff White People Like” page on amazon.