[simplyparticular]

You've got a lot of arguments going on. I don't agree that all of them are related to eBooks.

Bookstores (chain or independent) and libraries, are organized by genre. I can avoid Christian fiction (young adult, Wiccan, self-help, fill-in-the-blank) there by skipping that section. And if I accidentally pick one up off an end-cap or display table, there is usually a genre tag on the book, or the description makes it pretty clear. Or a quick flip through the first chapter tells me whether it's a book I want. So blaming eBooks for people being narrow/personal in their book choices is not accurate. People expect information to be able to make a decision on buying. It's that information that is often lacking in the eBook world.

I think what you are really concerned about is the online reader review feature that most eBookstores offer. Back in the "good old days," authors were largely insulated from negativity - if a book critic ripped your book, well, it was just one review. Now that authors are exposed directly to the thoughts of purchasers, there seems to be more sensitivity. I worked for a time at a independent publisher and am still in touch with a few of the authors, and while their books get lots of good reviews on Amazon, etc, like all human beings, they key in on the negative reviews.

Where I do think eBooks come into play in your argument - I think eBook readers will be more reactionary with their reviews than pBook readers because eBooks don't provide the same ability to judge a book before downloading. Even if a book is free, we've invested precious reading time in it. If I've wasted time reading a book I felt was misrepresented, yes, I'm going to sound off about it online.

And now that authors are self-publishing, there is no marketing dept to carefully craft a strategy of attracting buyers. And frankly, most authors don't know anything about promotion. Too many books on SmashWords have the vaguest descriptions, clearly designed in the hopes of capturing the widest group of readers. Big mistake, as far as I'm concerned, since they are just going to tick off more readers than they attract.