Let's Take A Selfie: 4 Reasons Kim Kardashian's Book Flopped
It's no secret I absolutely despise the Kardashians and their empire built on sexual exploitation.
They turned a sex tape into a multimillion-dollar industry, and they have garnered the attention of the entire world, for better or worse.
Kim Kardashian, who I guess calls herself the selfie queen, decided she would release upon the peasants of the world a collection of her selfies.
Why anyone would want to purchase a collection of her selfies (let alone get plastic surgery to look like her, like the dude on "Botched") is beyond me. But, I digress.
Her book, "Selfish," only sold 32,000 copies, and I can't say I am surprised.
If she or her publishers thought people were going to pay for something they can get for free on their Instagram or Facebook or Twitter feeds, they were highly misguided.
The selfie, for all intents and purposes, is meant to be a snapshot of one's self at a certain moment in time, but the selfie also can be used for narcissistic reasons.
It's not meant to be published and manufactured for the masses. Here's why:
1. Why buy the cow when the milk is free (overexposure)?
Kim Kardashian is known for bearing it all (as evidenced by her very explicit sex tape), and she has marketed herself as such.
She puts herself out there in her clothing, her social media posts, her television show and her everyday presence.
Like the old expression, "Why buy the cow when the milk is free?," there was no way Kim Kardashian's book, "Selfish," was going to be the next "Harry Potter," or even the next great autobiography.
Her sisters, Kendall and Kylie released a fiction book a year or so ago to dismal sales. Whether it was because the book was not good, or their book had nothing to do with their brand, they failed at that endeavor.
The Kardashian/Jenner girls make themselves so readily available, it feels wrong to have to pay for their "work" when we can get it for free.
2. "Selfish" is just that: selfish.
The Kardashian trendsetter decided to name her book, "Selfish," which was meant to be a play on the word selfie, which I still can't reconcile accepting to this day.
The problem with Kardashian's book is, not only does the general public not care to look at a book filled with selfies of Kardashian's face, it's just a vanity project for Mrs. Kanye West.
We can see her "selfie" in any gossip magazine, TMZ post or on her own social media accounts. Her reasoning behind releasing this book is selfish in and of itself.
She's trying to, again, profit off her fame, which I can't blame her, but how did no one speak up against this ridiculous project?
Her photos in the book are most likely finished products of Photoshop, and they aren't truly selfies.
At that point, it's just self-directed photography.
3. It has no true value.
The biggest reason KKW (Kim Kardashian West) had a failed book is because her book has no perceived value.
Yes, it's $9.97 on Amazon, but even at $9.97, there is no reason anyone should justify this purchase. For $9.97, I can have a meal at Chipotle, or see a matinee showing at a movie theater.
"Selfish" does not give buyers any incentive to run to stores to buy it, mainly because the same photos in the book are the ones found on her social media page.
4. Out with the old, in with the new.
In an increasingly advanced society, the concept of physical books is becoming as ancient as VHS tapes and CDs. More and more books are being published as eBooks and can be taken anywhere and accessed at any time.
They don't take up space and they weigh nothing, and they're not an inconvenience to users.
Books sales have continued to decrease all around the world, not just in the United States.
A large part of that is because people have such ease of access to news and literature online, it takes away from the novelty of picking up a book.
Unless "Selfish" was supposed to be the new "Harry Potter" or "Hunger Games," there was no chance of this book being a success.
