Quote:
Originally Posted by SmokeAndMirrors
A professional writer who is self-published or published in a non-traditional way is no less "real" than a writer who's published by Random House. Who their middle man is or isn't is irrelevant. The only question is, is it worth reading?
|
This reminds me a lot of jazz. When I was young (fifty years ago), Columbia Records explicitly said in their liner notes that their music was the best and the most prestigious, as if the customer cares who the record label is.
Now jazz musicians are self-recording, and using their cd's as calling cards. Jazz fans don't care whether a release is from a big label, a small label or an artist-owned label. They only care about the music.
SAM, you don't mention the best seller lists, but I think that this is related. The NYT list is made up of books sold by the big houses and read by NYT readers. So if your books sell in the wrong stores, you don't make the NYT list.
I hope that Amazon plays it straight and lists all of their sales regardless of publisher or price. I would like to see four lists - hardback, paperback, eBooks and the combination of the three.