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OTOH a book is nothing more than the physical representation of someone's imagination. Yes, it shouldn't matter that being a physical object has any sort of meaning but it does. To have passed a hurdle of acceptance has established that person over anyone who *hasn't* passed that hurdle. Doing enough times and your name becomes a brand and you can market that brand effectively without actually doing the hardcopy bit.
The whole point of getting published is that it's a form of peer review. You may decry it as a form of elitism and everyone should be a gatecrasher but it doesn't work that way. To quote Dash "If everyone is special, then no one is." Put everything out there on the "web" and you'll find that no one gets recognized. We want the gatekeepers. They provide a function. And you'll find, those that do get invited in, are more than willing to work within the system to keep it functioning. The big issue currently is how to slim the system down so that it doesn't have to cost so much.
Book Clubs, celebrity edorsements, pure advertising, blog spam, word of mouth, freebie giveaways. Something will work if the work is good but there's an awful lot of noise out there.
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