Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
No, I want to whittle it down to dozens of competing companies, who have different standards of "good," that they pitch to their target demographic customers.
One company focuses on science fiction only... for $10/month, you get a list of 100 sci-fi ebooks published in the last month that fit their standards of quality sci-fi. For an extra $5/month, you get less books, but more filtering: you only get space opera, or romantic sci-fi, or mysteries in sci-fi settings, or horror-esque stories, or so on.
Another company does romances. Another does YA novels. Another does "novels from 1st person POV." Another does nonfiction, with subgenres politics, health, technology, and self-help. And so on.
I'm not thinking of a single company; I'm pondering an industry in recommendations to replace the current publisher's name-stamp on the side of a book.
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Publishers (and before them, literary agents) already do all this filtering, plus more, and have a track record. You want to replace one set of arbiters--who are putting their money where their mouth is--with another set of arbiters who have no reputation, no stake, and no credentials. And this is an improvement?
Still totally horrified.