Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer
When someone buys an ebook reader to read novels by James Patterson or Stephen King (or even me) or nonfiction by Malcolm Gladwell or Bill Bryson, to tell them that -- hey, no probs, you can get Jane Austen's Emma over here -- is ducking the question and not really separating myth from truth.  |
Yeah, but that's disingenuous as well. And something you see a lot around here. "Well, yeah.. if you want POPULAR books the Amazon store is good." But for me, and I know for many others, the Amazon store is good exactly because it has so much more than popular books. Quality stuff that isn't popular or the stuff you find at Fictionwise or many of the other book stores. Stephen King's new stuff is just about the only "popular" books I've purchased (oh, and a Malcom Gladwell book).
I'm not saying YOU'RE saying that (wouldn't want to jump to conclusions from a forum post, too hard to see tone) but I do see that a lot around here. A kind of "Non-Amazon Elitism." I don't have a problem with elitism as a rule, but I do have a problem with ignorance (again, not saying you're saying that - I'm only speaking to the idea that Amazon is for the "popular stuff" and I think you're actually saying the opposite, but it didn't quite come off that way to me when I wrote this).
Amazon has over 200,000 books. Many of those are in the public domain. Many of those are repeats. Almost any best seller is there. And then there are the thousands and thousands of niche non-fiction in everything from history to philosophy to economics.
So yes, there are popular books. But it's also the best (as in quantity) source for non-popular books that could still find a publisher.