Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
...mainly, that it is no longer difficult to find an audience or distribute copies of a work--they'll be whittled away by smaller, nimbler companies, including a huge swarm of one-person author companies that have set their own terms for success.
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I would suggest: "no longer difficult to find
a small but profitable audience..."
The BPHs are very reliant on large print-run "bestsellers". A few big-return projects as a key to prosperity.
Much like the US TV advertising business could be in the pre-cable days.
Lowest common denominator content for mass audiences. The networks would (and still do) sneer at product that is well received, avidly followed by millions, yet doesn't cover *their* high overhead and expectations.
That same content, translated to a low overhead specialty cable network like A&E, LIFETIME, HBO, SYFY, or SHOWTIME can make a ton of money off that "limited" audience. That willingness of the cable networks to "think small" or "think genre" has over the past few decades whittled away the audience for the broadcast networks to the point that they are at a distinct disadvantage in obtaining quality content, some of which is never offered to them and instead goes straight to cable.
And, going a step forward; we are now seeing some quality video content going (experimentally) to the Internet as self-published ventures and succeeding. (DOCTOR HORRIBLE... anyone?)
It's not hard to see ebooks having similar (though not parallel) effects on books. BPHs = Networks, New Publishing = cable, self pub = internet video sites.
The BPHs are so worried about "giant" Amazon dictating to them that they are neglecting, even fostering, the development of a thousand low level competitors that are slowly eroding their domination just by taking away thousands of books they will never get to gatekeep. Or even see.
Barring change, irrelevance lies down that road.