Dave,
"where legitimate books and the self-published dreck will be indistinguishable"
Read some Dan Brown.... or try to. I'm sure there are plenty of self-published books that are 110% more worthy to see print than a Dan Brown.
"can't connect the dots to see what this ebook future would hold, or
care about the cultural and societal loss this will bring about."
Surely you jest. I'm all for giving power to the people... and back to the readers. I don't want to read about Tiger Woods. I don't care about Matha Stewart. I don't care about someone who once knew Michael Jackson. I want to read a great story.
I'd rather have a choice of what to read than to be guided by a personal preference of some nameless editor sitting in an office in some multi-national conglomerate, publishing the latest "blockbuster" to meet bottom lines and shareholder expectations. Newscorp anyone?
The game's changing, and all for the better. More choice, more variety. Power to the readers. :)
Cheers,
Steve
________________________________
From: davezeltserman <Dave.Zeltserman@gmail.com>
To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, 18 December, 2009 6:31:34 AM
Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: possibly the biggest publishing story of the year
--- In rara-avis-l@ yahoogroups. com, Debbi Mack <demack5@... > wrote:
>
> The existing big name authors will obviously have a leg-up on the
> midlisters and the independents.
That's probably the understatement of the year. As we slide more towards an ebook dominated world and as 100s of thousands of self-published books eventually fill up ebook stores, and more and more desperate authors give away their books for free in the hope of attracting readers (btw. Charlie Huston is now giving away free his Hank Thompson trilogy as ebooks), the chances of any writers other than celebrities and already established big names making any money with their ebooks is close to zero . These ebook stores are going to be swamps where legitimate books and the self-published dreck will be indistinguishable, and all the desirable webpage space will be reserved for the biggest names.
I understand how difficult it is to break in, I understand the frustrations, and how unfair it can sometimes seem with the big NY houses, but what I can't understand is all these hopeful writers who want to see everything blown up because they haven't been able to break in yet--and worse, can't connect the dots to see what this ebook future would hold, or care about the cultural and societal loss this will bring about.
--Dave
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