Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnyb
So the point is, I'm not sure if publishers institutionalized in collective memory as "of good value" can be so easily circumvented because even if they do not advertise directly, the significance THEY lend to authors is still of considerable importance on the "Literature" pages of newspapers and in magazines.
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Yes, "legitimization" is a function of a traditional publisher...
...for now.
For now, self-publishing is seen by many consumers as synonymous with "vanity press". They figure that the story/essay/whatever "can't be that good if they couldn't find a publisher for it".
But that is a transient bias.
As more and more authors start self-publishing and more and more consumers buy self-published content, first by "name" writers, then by mid-listers, and eventually by newcomers, reality will start to sink in. Especially if the traditional publishers stick to their intended pricing schemes. Eventually the realization that the $20 BPH story is *not* inherently better than the $2.99 self-published book; just more expensive.
The biggest threat to the myth of publisher "legitimization" is Sturgeon's Law ("90% of everything is crap") so over time regular consumers will get used to the new sources of content. And, let's face it; "publisher legitimization" matters more with a $20 hardcover than with a 2.99 ebook--people *will* take the occasional flyer on an unknown quantity if the price is right. And eventually those unknown quantities will become quite known, all on their own. Think of it as self-legitimatization via track-record.
Now, the newspaper "literature" pages with their reviews are already fading in many countries in the face of online review sites and online bookstore customer reviews which are more immediate, more accessible, and free.
We're in a transition era; it is very helpful to dissect past consumer behavior and bias as long as we remember that just because people behaved that way in the past, just because they may behave that way now, is no guarantee they will still behave that way.
The future is not the past with a different date.
Understanding past behavior is very helpful in crafting strategies for the future insofar as we remember that changing conditions will sooner or later lead to changed behavior. Blindly tying one's business to past behavior simply leads to steadily declining relevance; if nothing else because new/younger customers will come with new attitudes. (The digital natives paradigm.) Generation gaps are real and the only safe place to be there, in the long term, is with the newcomers.
Publisher (and critic) legitimization is real. For now.
But it's not something to tie your fate to. There are better and more reliable ways to build an author's brand name; they may not be as fast but neither do they leave you subservient to a wheeler-dealer in a glass skyscraper.