Comments on: All the Amazon-Hachette coverage doesn’t seem to cover some important causes and implications

By: Amy Eyrie

Amy Eyrie — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 08:26:22 +0000

Yeah. The bizarre repeating chorus of indies needing gatekeepers to control quality. Astounding because the big five have done such an amazing job of choosing lofty works of art to publish.

Lets see, John Norman’s Gor series comes to mind. The high-minded saga of a planet where women are sex slaves.

Or the serial rejection of JK Rowling because the gatekeepers couldn’t spot a great storyteller.

Writers are storytellers, plain and simple. We existed before editors or publishers or written language. The listener and the reader decide who storytellers are, not the self appointed gatekeepers of publishing.

By: Elka

Elka — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 06:15:40 +0000

Uh, uh, I know even a better one:
“I don’t hear any demands that Randy Penguin should regulate the crap coming from Author Solutions and they own them.”

By: alix@juno.coma

alix@juno.coma — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 00:42:58 +0000

Plus I think a lot of publishing CEOs ARE idiots. What sort of idiot would pick a fight with their biggest retailer?

By: Liz

Liz — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 00:32:43 +0000

I see ads across websites, on television, on my Kindle…where have you been? Maybe you’re just ignoring it. But it’s clearing a pretty big marketing campaign.

By: Terrence OBrien

Terrence OBrien — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 23:52:11 +0000

Except for bookstores, where can we look to see the consumer marketing the big publishers do?

By: Sheila

Sheila — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 23:47:56 +0000

I was going to quote this exact thing!

What’s the problem with Amazon paying someone their cut of a sale? No matter how bad the book may be, how unedited, how untrained the author, if someone bought the book then good on that writer. They’ve made some money, and likely fulfilled a life-long dream. I know I did. I plan on doing it again, as many times as I can before I die, and the naysayers can kiss my butt.

By: J.A. Konrath

J.A. Konrath — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 23:06:36 +0000

There is no change without outrage.

By: Liz

Liz — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 21:20:17 +0000

Yep yep. Try explaining that to Mike though. You won’t get very far.

By: Liz

Liz — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 21:19:17 +0000

It’s such a good point. One that I think indies need to throw out there far more often.

By: Liz

Liz — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 21:17:39 +0000

I don’t understand why so many readers would rather complain about the book and not return it. I have rarely been disappointed by the ebooks I’ve picked, but on the rare occasion I am, I just return them. Is it really that hard or do people just love to complain? Amazon makes returns pretty easy for most of their products.