You leave off with a bunch of questions; I feel confident about the answers. http://bit.ly/9iOpDe

I’m not comfortable calling it nonsense, not at this point — the reason it’s a legit fear (though one I don’t think will hold water in the end) is because at present, self-publishing is and has been pretty much full of garbage. The signal to noise ratio is very imbalanced — but, out of the books in the bookstore, the signal to noise ratio is much more in sync. I pick up a book in a store, I may not *like* it, but its quality isn’t dubious. Pick up a self-published book today (or worse, five years ago), and you’re far likelier to get something that isn’t just “not your style,” but something that is objectively bad.

– c.

Where does the fear of crap drowning out quality come from? It is being nurtured by the existing power system and it is complete and utter nonsense. What drives the traditional market is sales, so in the emerging self-publishing electronic market just sort by the number of downloads/purchases and you have what is very likely to be much of the cream.

The fear of an emerging self-publishing model is hogwash that the traditional power structure fears greatly and perhaps for good reason. If we move from tyranny to true and fair free-market capitalism then I cheer enthusiastically from my arm chair. I am confident that I can find enough cream in the new system to keep me satisfied.

Writers will get the leverage I mentioned in my earlier comment. Laundromats all over NY will be flooded with new business, all bearing crapped in pants.

Writers should never be a creative backdrop. Further, the notion that “a writer writes” is a myth — the term writer is actually pretty inaccurate. Author is good, but even that doesn’t encompass all that a successful author must do. Even to get published *by* a big company requires you to market yourself by writing a query letter and by pitching the book. Writers also have to be good editors. Writers who are unwilling to learn those skills won’t make it very far, I’m afraid.

– c.

As far as writer motivations go, I know what the goals of my writing group peers are, and they’re less than pure. I’m constantly criticized for not being mainstream and for using vocabulary that the average consumer would shun.

i’m just saying if the business changes, it changes the basic role of the writer entirely. We cease to become solely the creative backdrop and become the marketing department. That’s not something that appeals to me. I’m not necessarely likeable, as is clear from my comments and responses thereto.

If I can, ahem, pimp my own article — over at The Escapist I talk about circles of trust and word of mouth (and hive minds!), and one of the conclusions I made is that, for me, something like Google is less valuable these days. Google has no filter; it’s just a dumptruck full of possibilities dumped on my head. But social media — Twitter, or here in these comments — we get more personalized, filtered answers to our questions, and that’s of great value.

– c.