|
What I'm looking for these days is not a distinction between "established" (by which I'm guessing you mean traditionally published) and "indie" (which commonly means couldn't get a real book contract). I mean, I'm generally confident that Stephen King is going to give me a decent read and I'm willing to pay a premium for a book of his over an unknown. But I'd be willing to pay that whether he stays with his NYC publisher or whether to becomes and Indie author. It is not the method of publishing that makes an author "established" to me, it's his/her track record. At the same time, I'm starting to develop a small but solid list of Indie authors who are becoming quite "established" in my mind for producing quality reads at fair prices.
What I really need is reliable gatekeepers. And let's be honest here, the publishers do this function to an extent but they also publish large amounts of trash that aren't worth my money. They are not above disappointing me with bad books, and when they do it at agency pricing it stings much more than a $1.99 indie. I don't see that the publishers own the gate-keeping business lock, stock and barrel or even these days the author agents. I'm fairly confident that there will be new business models of gate-keeping developed in the near future because along with established authors, it is one service that the reading public craves.
|