Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
@Hitch. Good post. You do have a point and I should probably have left out the adjective greedy which added little if anything to the arguments I put forward. If I really had to use an adjective in that sentence (and I did not) there are more applicable ones I could and should have chosen. I do not intend to imply that publishing is not hard work nor that there are some very good publishers around. And there clearly are many self-published books which are simply not up to scratch. Whole threads have been devoted to the task of picking books in this brave new world. My comments are essentially about the Big 5 and their setting of ebook prices since they so painfully wrested control of that privilege from Amazon.
|
For the most part, Amazon gave in on the agency pricing when their competition dried up and they were no longer worried about grabbing market share. Amazon limited the $9.99 price to big name books.
Those who dismiss the value of publishers should take a look at how To Kill A Mockingbird was written. The original manuscript was handed in 1957. It took over two years of the editor working with Lee to turn in the unpolished manuscript into a final product. Many of the writers that I read have reported similar back and forth with their editor on the first several books before they learn the craft of writing publishable works. Publishers don't just snarf up manuscripts and publish them after a quick spell check and adding some cover art.