Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Good News

My long-time readers here know of my complete distaste for self-published ebooks. I have been hoping that the fad would fade and that things would get back to normal in the business of books and book publishing. The main thing that I kept thinking would come to pass is that the complete flood of poorly written, self-published shit would finally so completely disgust the collective reader that they would finally--FINALLY--stop downloading and supporting that most hideous of creations: the self-published ebook.

And, it looks as if the tide may at last be turning. I hope this bodes ill for the self-published ebook fad and that real talent and skill will once again hold the day.

We'll see.

Kindle sales plummet.

Duh! We self-published our books! Duh!

4 comments:

John Mayer said...

Your lips to God's ears. It's intriguing to try to guess how modern entertainment is going to play out. With piracy rampant, even for works that were never converted to electronic form initially, will there remain an incentive to create? If no one can make a living through their work, will there be no time for great, sweeping works? Traditional publishers once acted as a filter, for better or worse. My single volume is not self-published but there is no other distinction from a self-published gook as far as the quality of hte printing or the effectiveness of distribution is concerned.

James Robert Smith said...

Self-published ebooks equal the end of literature. Or, at least, the threat remains.

I have never--after many attempts--read a single self-published book that was not an utter and complete piece of shit. Not once.

I still hope for self-published ebooks to become a stagnant backwater and that we can all once again laugh at the clueless assholes who engage in the practice. Fuck 'em. Fuck 'em all.

When all of the jerks who were making a living at it for a while are once again working the night shift at Kwik-E-Mart, I will be happy.

Lucky Duck Dreams said...

I agree with you mostly. Except for those authors whose books aren't published because their books don't fit the current fad. Ive actually become a fan of two authors who are self published. And the funny thing is they've been 'discovered' through their popularity by 'real' publishers.

James Robert Smith said...

I have read two good novels that were self-published. However, I only read them AFTER they were picked up by traditional publishers. That said, I'm not going to churn through what is essentially the world's largest slush pile parading as a vast ego-party. I'll let some clever editors do that and inform me later.