Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
The primary thing that publishers bring to the table is filtering out the garbage, and editing those few books that are worthy of publication such that they become readable. Alas, you only have to look at the overwhelming majority of books by independent authors to see the result of not using a professional editor.
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Hi Harry,
If you look at my original post you'll see my second point of requirements to create an ebook is an editor (just not the whole infrastructure of a publishing house).
And I certainly agree with you, there is a lot of junk out there, and a lot of stuff that each one of us may not be that interested in. In traditional publishing there is so much cost in producing a book not directly related to the writing of it, that the responsibility of insuring that money is not poured down a rat hole is the publisher, who puts up the money in the first place. So they become the gatekeeper. But when you decide to read a particular book, how often is your decision based on the fact that Random House is the publisher? You may partially base reading a book on a publisher if that publisher specializes in a genre that you like.
When those costs are no longer there, there needs to be other mechanisms for judging the merits of a work. That's where blog reviews, forums, reviews by readers on websites the sell ebooks, book clubs and recommendations by authors you like come in. I think those sources are a much better judge of the value of a book than publishers are.
Additionally ebooks do not need to generate the profits that pbooks need in order to support the people involved in their creation. Cheaper ebooks for the reader generates more profit for the authors who keep a higher percentage of the sale, and more books being sold since they are more affordable.
So why do we need publishers for ebooks again?
