Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
Takes me about 20 seconds to dismiss books as dreck. I've never been a "wader"... even before the days of easy self-publishing. Cream rises, good things get talked about, voices carry--however you want to say it. The path to finding good books to read isn't any more perilous or unnavigable than it ever was.
I've said it before: very few people pick out books to read at complete random, site-unseen; before, during, or after the self-publishing explosion. Avid readers rarely grabbed a book out of hat and started reading. And of the ones that did, I doubt very highly that they've ever taken comfort in the fact that a book they picked with that method, and ended up hating, was at least competently written.
There's always been an ocean of dreck, but nobody's ever been forced to dive in it to find books.
If you only want to see books by major publishers, then browse the major publishers' websites. Problem solved. Go to your favorite authors' websites to see if their latest has been released yet. Talk to your friends. Follow people whose reading tastes you share or admire on Twitter. Hit up a book blog. Check out a "what else are you reading" thread on online forums.
There's never been a time when absolute potluck was going to get you a high rate of return on new favorite authors/books, so I fail to see why people always bring up the "more crap than ever" lament.
Never in the history of the planet has there been so many tools (easy, efficient and powerful tools) at reader's disposal to find great books to read without having to leave their homes. Yet many people want to complain that good books don't fall out of the sky into their laps any more. Well guess what? They never did. Get over it.
EDITORS NOTE: Although my post was in response to pwalker8's post, please understand that with the exception of a couple, most of my "you"s were entirely rhetorical.
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Gee grandpa, you want me to get off your lawn? Is your old black and white TV with 5 channels good enough and you can't understand why someone might want a 4K smart TV and streaming video?
I can remember back in the old days where I had to visit a number of book stores to find the full array of books. The shopping mall stores didn't carry much in any one genre, so I drove long distances to specialty stores. Part of the reason that B&N and Boarders were initially successful is they had room for a much larger selection. I also remember when each book seller had a copy of Books in Print, and would pull it out if you asked for a specific book or author. Maybe you think we should go back to those days.
There are two different issues to be addressed. First is finding new authors. That's what you are talking about. That's always been a case of word of mouth. Sites like this site and Goodreads make it easier to find new authors. The second is finding out when specific authors put out new books and make back list available. That is mostly what I'm talking about.
My specific frustration is I know what is possible and I know what I want. There are a lot of things that can be done, but aren't because Amazon doesn't see it as in their interest. As I mentioned, Authoralerts was a pretty decent tool for notification until Amazon shut them down. It wasn't perfect, but it got the job done. Heck, if Amazon's author notifications actually worked, that would solve problems.
But when you control the market, there is little incentive to innovate and make things work. That's why I think that publishers should put together a consortium to build and maintain a database of available books and make that database available for innovators to access. People like the creators of authoralerts could hook into it. They might need to figure out a different monetization method, but I'm sure people would figure it out.