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Old 05-24-2011, 11:09 PM   #22
fjtorres
Grand Sorcerer
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Let's see now: gatekeeping is about weeding out the "unfit" and making sure readers only see properly annointed content. Trouble is, we also hear that the market is filling up with "slush".
Now that sounds a wee bit contradictory.
If gatekeeping is still real, how is the "slush" getting to market?

Sorry, but the world we live in is the one where if somebody writes a book they don't need the blessing of a glass house priesthood of print to put it before readers and, maybe, get it to sell. A world where the choice whether that book sells or not is up to the buyer.

Now, that doesn't mean that the self-proclaimed gatekeepers don't add value; only that what they are doing that adds value (if they are--another debate entirely) is not gatekeeping. Gatekeeping is about control and any publisher that thinks it can control what readers see and buy is deluded and wasting effort. There is no control anymore. The power is moving to the buyers. Its their money and they choose what to spend it on.

Wise publishers--and they do exist--realize that their chief role in this new world is *promotion* of their clients' product; helping the creators sell more with their aid than they would without it. In the new world publishers can be consultants, marketers, even--if they're really good--kingmakers. If they're not, they can just as easily be irrelevant. In the new world publishers work for the creators, not the other way around.
Quite a few publishers--and judging by author testimonials, Amazon is one of them--get it, that times have changed irrevocably. But it does seem like some haven't gotten the message yet or they actually think that guarding a gate while the fence around it has vanished still serves a purpose.

There is no gatekeeping.
No filtering, no weeding.
Marketing, yes; promotion, yes; editing, packaging design, and even printing services still add value. But publishers can no longer control what gets to market. That power now belongs to the writers, just as the power to decide what sells lies with buyers.

Publishers are hired help not overlords.
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