Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemurion
[...]Unfortunately, the numbers don't show that readers are at least as good as gatekeepers as the agency/BPH model. They may be better, they may be worse, but you can't tell from the numbers we've got. [...]
|
I was commenting from a reader's perspective rather than a writer's. As a writer, the fact that my books aren't in that top percentage might make me say the gatekeeping is working poorly indeed. But as a reader, I can see that independently published books are well represented in that top percentage - so readers are obviously voting with their dollars. They are not automatically ignoring books because they're independently published, they are not completely missing independently published books because they don't have the much vaunted representation and marketing of the big publishers.
People will always differ in their opinions on what deserves to be in that top percentage - that has always been true. But sales of popular fiction has always been about exactly that - what is popular. It doesn't say anything about the quality of the text or story beyond what it takes to be popular. This was no different even when traditional publishing was the only game in town. The distribution shows that independently published works are finding their respective places at the top of this popularity contest in similar proportions to works from big publishers. The gatekeeping is working ... but that doesn't mean we will feel any better about being on the wrong side of the gate.