This is a book about the economics of abundance.  Now that new technologies and the internet are leading to a world where everything is available to everyone, how is this rewriting the economics of scarcity, and what does the future have in store? The book is based on an October 2004 artilcle by the same author, Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired magazine, that quickly became the most cited article the magazine had ever run.  In easy-to-read language, and emminently illustrative data and examples, Anderson pursuasively demonstrates how the new reality of niche markets demands a completely new theory of business to reflect the reality of the new economics.  Anderson explains how we have arrived at this point, and indicates the huge opportunities it allows.  If you are a fan of The Tipping Point, The Wisdom of Crowds, and New Rules for the New Economy, make room for this one! 

The theory of the Long Tail can be boiled down to this: Our culture and economy are increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of hits (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve, and moving toward a huge number of niches in the tail.  In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare.