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Originally Posted by xg4bx
to me all that proves is that most consumers are lazy, they'll lap up whatever is put in front of them. ("good enough" *shrug*)
people don't have to wade through piles of mediocrity, great stuff is there right beneath the surface but they're not even willing to put in that modicum of effort. they want to be told what to read, watch or listen to because they're intellectually lazy, which in turn leads to the vast wasteland of mainstream tripe that we've got. i just can't identify with that mind set.
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I would most definitely disagree. It isn't "intellectual laziness" but a matter of trust. People are drowning in choice. They will do nothing if there are no sign posts to point out the gold in the great mound of dross that they get confronted with every day. These sign posts could be advertising "That looks good", reputation "they published the last good book I read", popular opinion "bestseller!", or word of mouth.
The publishers have set themselves up as gatekeepers. They've done the heavy lifting. If you like their offerings, and they've certainly had long enough to tailor themselves with special imprints, locked in authors, yadda, yadda, yadda, then the chances that the market responds to them over the other choices out there, isn't a surprise.
The major error that the houses are making is that they AREN'T the top predator of the food chain, they're just big. Amazon is proving that it can wade into the field with the big boys. It's too early to see whether the biz case is going to hold up but it certainly muddies the waters.
An interesting case study: The Devil Inside. Top box office by far last week. Watch its progress. I predict that it will be lucky to break the top 10 this week and will be out of the theatres by next week. Good marketing of an excreble product gets trumped by word of mouth. That's not laziness, just getting fooled, again.