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Originally Posted by DaringNovelist
I watched the careers of a lot of successful friends completely die through the eighties and early nineties. To me, it feels like this last decade (specifically because of Amazon's efforts to bring small press and used books into it's model, and now Kindle) has a been an improvement in sf.
Camille
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I haven't seen any improvement in the sf market in the last decade, except for individual, particularly successful, sf writers. There's been a steady decline. Except for sf in the media, of course.
Amazon is both a blessing and a curse to the midlist author. The availability of used books is great for readers, and for making it easier for new people to give your stuff a try. But it has killed the reprint market. And for books that are in print, it cuts into new book sales. It's hard to say whether the benefits outweigh the costs.
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So I guess what I'm saying is that all this stuff people have been bemoaning as the end of publishing and bad for authors is a very good thing for the almost dead midlist.
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I'm at a loss to predict. I think there'll be a lot of churn and upheaval. It may be that indie publishing will become the new midlist. It may be that the traditional publishers will find ways to reenergize the midlist. Some authors will find the magic, and some won't. I guess that's always been true. It's just that the board is changing.