Quote:
Originally Posted by Moejoe
....
I also want to read only good books, not just OK books, but I don't think the traditional publishers have any more of a grasp on what is great and what is OK than do I when I make my own decisions on the culture I obtain.
|
And you are certainly welcome to have and express that opinion, but it's wrong. The whole purpose of the publishing industry is and was two-fold. 1 - to make money and 2 - to publish the best work the can. The two are not mutually exclusive. Now admittedly 'best' can be defined in any number of ways and your 'best' may not be my 'best' but the job of the publisher is to optimize 'best' across the market it is serving and they have done a hell of a job of it for the last 500 years or so.
This is saying nothing of reviews or marketing of course. I tend to discount all marketing myself, but if I find multiple reviewers that seem to agree that a particular book or collection is great then I will certainly check it out. If multiple reviews say the opposite I will likely not bother as my time is too valuable. If the reviews are mixed, but it seems of interest I'll give it a shot as well and read the first few pages, etc. and go from there.