Comments on: Traditional Books Become the Minority

By: thorn

thorn — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:45:17 +0000

with the declining quality — and maybe even degree — of editing that takes place these days in traditional publishing, what the heck. i wonder whether publishers are self-aware enough to realize that they may have made themselves redundant by letting their editing slip.

amazon allows one to download a free sample of any kindle text, so at least in that venue testing a new author is fairly low-risk in both time and $. if a book is engaging, it will be purchased, read, and probably reviewed. grisham started out by self-publishing. if a book is good, word is likely to get out — much moreso these days than in the past; another thing that our intertubes makes so very easy.

[hm. speaking of kindle, it seems to me that kent a's own recent self-publishing effort is next on queue for me to download and read. i read the sample a few weeks back and it seems kinda fun..]

By: David Crotty

David Crotty — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:10:43 +0000

I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. Just that the numbers are more likely due to previously unpublishable authors self-publishing, rather than a shift of publishable authors doing so. Well, that and an economic downturn where publishing houses are putting out less product.

By: Kent Anderson

Kent Anderson — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:07:24 +0000

Well, just as it became easier to express a thought or opinion online — and as two bloggers, we’ve both benefited from this, and both have an audience — I think it will be OK if more people are publishing their books. Titles will get published faster, interesting stories and ways of storytelling will be revealed, etc. And, just like old media in news and opinion, books from traditional publishers aren’t always as good as we’d like to think.

For instance, the NYTimes Bestseller list in paperback fiction has as #1 a romance novel I’m pretty sure I’d dislike. The #2 bestseller is a self-published book about a conversation with God. I’m sure I won’t read that one either.

But how these were published isn’t leading me to my decision.

By: David Crotty

David Crotty — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:46:36 +0000

Isn’t this just a sign that technology has reduced the price of self-publishing so that more wannabe authors, no matter how crap their writing, can publish their books? Just like the internet, we’re reaching a point where everyone gets to have their say, and of course, most of it is not worth reading.

I’d say it’s a lot more of this than it is authors who would normally go through traditional publishing routes choosing to self-publish.