Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
I put disintermediation of publishers in the same category as replacement of newspapers by bloggers. The best blogger is indeed better than than the worst professional print journalist. But more opinion slingers does not make up for fewer professionals monitoring city hall -- or Afghanistan.
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I think one of the fallout aspects of the ebook explosion is going to be a clearer separation between fiction and nonfiction--and especially, between research-based nonfiction and opinion pieces.
"How I Grew Up Disadvantaged But Got Better" takes no more skill or research than genre fiction. Neither does "Let Me Tell You About The Awesomest Thing I Ever Did." But "How Public Trends Changed From X to Y" can take serious research (which costs at least time, and possibly money); "What Those People Over There Are Doing About Z" also takes time/money. And I think that big publishers having to drop prices of mainstream fiction to compete with indies is going to make that more obvious.
It may mean less substantial nonfic gets written. It may mean that such books get kickstarted as much as they get optioned by a publisher. It may mean that books with a smaller niche don't get written at all--and yes, that'd be a shame. However, I don't agree that it's enough of a shame that we should all be paying $10 or $14 for novels no better written than $4 indie novels.