Why Monetizing Before Community-Building Doesn't Work for Books

I'm reading The Long Tail by Chris Anderson and this paragraph got my attention:

"In 2004, 950,000 books out of the 1.2 million tracked by Nielsen BookScan sold fewer than ninety-nine copies. Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies. Only 25,000 sold more than 5,000 copies.  The average book in America sells about 500 copies. In other words, about 98 percent of books are noncommercial, whether they were intended that way or not."

Yowza. If you are hoping to get rich with the next New York Times bestseller, think again. Focus on community-building instead. (And then write a book that your community loves.)