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9 Signs Self-Publishing Is out of Control
TaoPhoenix:
Well, it is a bubble, and it is creaking, but it hasn't quite crashed yet.
Somewhere in here is the other side of the copyright mess. Copyright is, you know, about the stark raving fear that someone might copy your work for free and deprive you of a sale! (Dramatization: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBWkZ4JykTo )
Like - you know - where is the copyright clearance for that online colleges forum giving permission for the graveyard shift to reprint that entire opinion piece in its entirety?
So their argument here is ... wait for it ... "that these books will not sell enough copies!" Clearly that's because of the 100% piracy rate by 20 million readers, right? Or ... not.
Bleh I'm becoming a grouch. : /
mahesh2k:
What self publishing needs is a public filter system something like DIgg or reddit used to provide until corporates used it to sneak their stuff in. That if handled properly then it is easy to filter the self published books. That sort of platform will have it's pros and cons but atleast it will filter good or bad books to some extent. Sites like goodread started with that intention and later sidetracked with publishing house books.
TaoPhoenix:
What self publishing needs is a public filter system something like DIgg or reddit used to provide until corporates used it to sneak their stuff in. That if handled properly then it is easy to filter the self published books. That sort of platform will have it's pros and cons but atleast it will filter good or bad books to some extent. Sites like goodread started with that intention and later sidetracked with publishing house books.
-mahesh2k (May 15, 2012, 01:48 PM)
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You nailed it. Yes, to a degree, the old school pub houses DID do a filter function, as well as a copyedit function. However they "packaged" all that stuff into the distribution side, which is now something we *don't* need.
My current guess on a theme is a Rotten Tomatoes for books.
superboyac:
I'm all for self-publishing. Not everyone will make it big, but so what. It chips away at the publishing establishment. And that, is a very good thing. :)
-Renegade (May 15, 2012, 10:56 AM)
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Yes!
What's the complaint? That people have to wade through the pile of nonsense to find the good stuff? That's a pretty lame complaint. Does Oprah HAVE to tell you something is good before you read it? If that's the publishing house's attitudes, they can shove it. I'm perfectly confident in my ability to decide whether I like something or not.
If having a formal institution approve of and filter the content is good, why are the movies Hollywood is churning out so remarkably bad and boring?
superboyac:
From Coming Apart:
In the corporate and financial worlds, the CEOs and financial heavy hitters whose actions affect the national economy are limited to the very largest and most strategically placed institutions. And so it goes throughout the narrow elite. The number of influential players is surprisingly small even for a country as sprawling and decentralized as the United States.
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