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Old 05-13-2011, 10:26 AM   #132
Leyor
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe View Post
How one feel is subjective but the quality is not. A spelling mistake or a grammar error does not disappear just because a reader does not notice it.
Quality IS actually a very subjective thing. A very finely edited book about the dictomy of pimples, is that quality? A sobbing romance novel, is that quality?
It's a challenge that faced many libraries, do they invest in books with good narratives and of a high standard, content wise or should they invest most heavily in the books the public wanted, even if it was in their eyes trashy litterature such as Duke Nuk'em the Book.

Out of the top 10 most bestselling Kindle books, 4 were by indie authors. Out of the 25 bestselling indie authors,only 6 has ever had a publishing deal and professional editing before. Are their popularity an indication of their quality? If so, selfpublishing doesn't seem to affect the quality negatively enough that good writers aren't making it to the top on their own.

How well a book is edited also impact on the quality, I don't disagree there, and it'd serve services like that well if they looked into how they could provide an editor function, by utilitizing their network. But publishing is not a guarantee for quality, and selfpublishing is not a guarantee for reduced quality.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Giggleton View Post
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for politicians to act virtuously.
Me neither, so it's up to us to supply the pressure.

Quote:
Originally Posted by leebase View Post

It's only strange if you don't think about it. Poor Billy can't afford anything. If you cater to Poor Billy's price point, you won't be able to support yourself by writing books. So your books won't exist to begin with, or only very few will and those without the kind of quality they could have if you could afford to pay editors and such.
That's a really simplistic view of how the market works, and it's completely inaccurate. If you sell 5x more pies at half the price, you still make more money. Right now people catering to poor Billy's price point is making a KILLING. Amanda Hocking is making MILLIONS, selfpublishing and reaching a price point of 1-3$ pr. book. Is she an exception to the rule? I can right off the bat name a bunch of authors that are selling more than 10.000 books pr. month at that price point, without any digging. They are selfpublished and not going through the publishing system.

So your statement is inaccurate.

Last edited by Leyor; 05-13-2011 at 10:38 AM.
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