Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
If by "elitist literary sense" you mean "written using correct spelling, grammar and punctuation" then I agree that this is something that the majority of independent authors lack.
Whether or not one considers that to be a good or a bad thing is, I suppose a matter of personal taste. I'm partial to it personally, and I don't think there's the slightest chance that mainstream publishers are going to disappear.
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No. I don't.
I mean authors like Bernard Cornwell, George R.R Martin, David Weber, John Grisham, Diana Gabaldon, Eric Flint, John Ringo, Lee Child, Mary Higgins Clark, Nora Roberts/J.D Robb, Rachel Maddow, James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, Michael Connelly, Stephen King, - add as many more as you like.
They don't need the BPH any more. Once their current contracts expire they can self publish and hit just as many Amazon best seller lists as they do now. Even the up and coming indies know they have more muscle in negotiations than at any time previously. What was it that it took a major publisher to hook Amanda Hocking? $2 million? And she was one of your indies who was presumably incapable of "using correct spelling, grammar and punctuation", who they only managed to catch at the top of the curve.
If the BPH want to catch/keep popular authors then they're going to pay through the nose or they're going to lose them, because they're not the only game in town any more. Either way their profits are going to take a major hit. They probably will survive in some form, but not in any way close to their present structure.
And books using "correct spelling, grammar and punctuation" will continue to be written. Just as they were long before the BPH ever existed.