Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Mariotte
[...]Maybe mediocrity isn't a problem, though I think if readers are deluged with it, they can be turned off from reading altogether, or else start to accept it as the standard and not look for what's better. And I think writers being challenged--being forced by a series of gatekeepers--to do better work is important to each individual writer and to our literature as a whole.[...]
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I did consider this, but the way I see it, all that happens in self-publishing is that the slush pile has been made public and the readers have become the new gatekeeper. There is still pressure on writers to produce something that will stand out from the slush pile, so there is still pressure to do better, to
not be mediocre.
I also considered whether there was some indirect benefit to writers by having a gatekeeper regulate the market (like De Beers and the diamond market?). The gatekeepers make sure the market is not flooded so my book, if I do get past the gates, may be more likely to get its share of the buyers dollars. But instead Konrath makes me wonder if this regulation is part of publishers' way of exploiting writers. If I get past the gatekeeper once I have a better chance a second time - but if I make too much of a fuss about the working conditions then they threaten to consign me back to the slush pile.