Instant books and online sales

A specialty book publisher and Barnes & Noble are hoping to cash in on the white-hot popularity of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

The publisher, Black Dog & Leventhal, printed 100,000 copies of the so-called "instant book" and Barnes & Noble is producing a hardcover edition and giving it prime real estate at the front of its stores. The book was published Feb. 15.

According to the Wall Street Journal, author Steve Dougherty turned in the 128-page manuscript in two weeks for a flat fee of $15,000.

Obama certainly is popular, but political tomes are not usually bestsellers. Indeed a quick checks of the sales rankings on Amazon.com and BN.com from one week ago shows mediocre results:

Amazon.com Sales Rank: 4,864
BarnesAndNoble.com Sales Rank: 73,665

And most of the current success on Amazon seems pegged to publicity from the Wall Street Journal story. A week ago, the book's rank on Amazon was 40,247.

But perhaps this book is an impulse item that will do well in the front of brick-and-mortar stores.

I have a feeling publishers have just scratched the surface of what's possible with niche audiences and print-on-demand technology. But to stick with the Obama example, here's a few other books about the candidate from nimble publishers that seem to be having some success, at least on Amazon:
Should Barack Obama Be President?
Barack Obama: Working to Make a Difference
Barack Obama (People in the News)

I couldn't find a Web site for Black Dog & Leventhal, but I was able to find this list of their books.