Read Cat Valente’s post. Or, if you are lazy, here’s the takeaway:
No one goes around suggesting that everyone should become their own autonomous cheesemakers and cheering the death of the cheese industry. Why? Because that would result in a lot of shitty cheese.
Exactly.
You can call me Tempest.
I'm a writer, most often committing acts of Fantasy and Science Fiction, though I have been known to slip in and out of genres. I'm famous on the internet, an editor of some repute, and hopeless convention addict.
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Altered Fluid Blog
belletristic: a writer of belles lettres. belles lettres: French, literally, fine letters. Literature that is an end in itself and not merely informative; light, entertaining, and often sophisticated literature.
— Merriam-Webster
My view is that the big advantage of cheap self publishing options is not to have each author attempt to become their own editor, graphic designer, marketing etc- it’s that small groups of people, with the appropriate skills, can use these options to build the equivalent of a publishing house.
Especially since, it takes generations to push entrenched issues in established places, whereas, it just takes a lot, but not impossible, amount of work to do a fresh start with a group of like-minded folks.
In my own sector of geekdom, rpgs, we’ve seen people consistently push 300-1000 copies a year, in a niche of a niche, so these things are not impossible or un-doable.
Very true. :)