Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
But Konrath's accuracy has not been checked either. That people find it useful does not mean that it is really useful. Also possible effects people see can have other reasons so without proper blinded experiments you can not say so much.
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People find it useful because it makes them money. Sometimes, a lot of money. That means it has been checked; it's been tested in the open market and found effective. Not sure how "do this to make more money" could be "not really useful" if it works.
They're working from different perspectives--Shatzkin's talking about the future of the industry; Konrath's giving business advice to authors. And it's effective business advice. It's possible that Konrath's advice will (1) speed up the collapse of the publishing industries, which may very well *not* be good for authors, including those following his plan, and/or (2) not be useful at all in another 5 years as market & culture change. But Konrath's not saying his system will work forever; 10 years ago, it wasn't viable, and 10 years from now, something else may be much better for professional authors.
Shatzkin has no direct, specific advice for authors--nor anyone else in the publishing industry. He's got Thoughts About the publishing industry. They're complicated, because the industry's complicated. They are not, by any objective standard,
useful, as opposed to "meaningful."