This post, by J.A. Konrath, originally appeared on his A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog on 7/5/11.
Some people believe the ease of self-publishing means that millions of wannabe writers will flood the market with their crummy ebooks, and the good authors will get lost in the morass, and then family values will go unprotected and the economy will collapse and the world will crash into the sun and puppies and kittens by the truckload will die horrible, screaming deaths.
Or something like that.
This is bullshit, of course. A myth. A fabrication. One rooted in envy and fear.
Readers aren’t the ones worried about the scores of new ebooks being released. They have no need to be worried. There are already billions of books in the world. A few more million won’t make a difference.
Readers are able to find what they want, quite easily. They can go into a bookstore and come out with a purchase, even though that store stocks 150,000 titles. They can go into a library, and ten minutes later walk out with a handful of books that interest them.
There are millions of websites, and YouTube videos, and things to buy on Amazon.com. There are thousands of choices on cable TV and Netflix and Hulu. Yet we’re always able to find gems.
No, the readers don’t care if some moron uploads his ten-years-in-the-making opus "Me and My Boogers: A Love Story." They’ll be able to avoid it just by looking at the crummy cover art, the poor description, and the handful of one star reviews.
Read the rest of the post on J.A. Konrath‘s A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing.