Quote:
Originally Posted by mish
The cream will rise to the top.
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I suppose what I'm worrying about is being a needle in the haystack. And I'm sure it's arrogant to think so. What I'm hawking here isn't particularly good. It was rejected by a major publisher ten years ago. I only published it after seeing how it stood in comparison to what else was on offer -- and still, I wouldn't charge a cent for it.
I have another children's novel, and six adult novels (never sent, so never rejected) and I intend to publish them all. So who am I to complain? Of course it is the best time for indie publishers in terms of access to the marketplace. Anyone can publish. But how long will that continue?
At present, ebooks account for 10% of the US market. In Australia it's 1%. And I'm sure the rest of the English-speaking world is also lagging behind the States.
There's a difference in culture. I am constantly amazed by American attitudes to freedom, free expression and free enterprise. Australia isn't like that. It's a repressive state by comparison. And similarly, in the UK, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and so on, people's attitudes are different.
I really couldn't believe that Amazon was letting anyone publish through DTP when I found out. That simply wouldn't happen in Australia. And what I fear is that it won't continue. As the marketplace opens up, and if more and more indie books continue to flood the market, readers will start demanding some way of telling one book from another.
I don't think you can rely on them to grade the slushpile. How many one star reviews can you give before you grow tired of it and complain? Smashwords has published 2500 books in the last 30 days. Heaven knows how many Amazon has published.
What percentage of those are readable?
Of course I want access. I just fear it will be taken away, the way Apple took it away from app developers.
If there isn't some means of telling a reasonable indie book from one that is simply nonsense, then I believe that will happen.