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Mark my words this won't last. It has happened to Itunes, Play Store, Steam, New Grounds and basically every website that let's users upload content for sale /

by IIAOPSW 10y ago

Mark my words this won't last. It has happened to Itunes, Play Store, Steam, New Grounds and basically every website that let's users upload content for sale / ad money. I call it the fundamental problem of user generated content. At the current expected payoff, soon every schmuck will be uploading his book. Quality won't matter. Eventually the torrent of content for consumers will be more than consumers can hope to consume, and the expected passive income for a given creative person will go to zero. The thing all these sites have in common is that they promised to be a meritocracy for creative types. You simply make your work and then reviews come in and its judged fairly. Better content gets more money. No need to revert to tricks like paying a PR firm to market it. The reality is that when there is money to be made, people will rush in until there is no longer money to be made. Our mechanisms to separate the wheat from the chaff don't scale nearly as well as the economics of digital content distribution networks. Don't believe me? Go to Steam Greenlight. Tell me how many games look interesting. Tell me how many uploads are happening per day. Can you keep up with it? Go to the app store. How much stuff is in the new section? How much looks good.

dawei 10y ago
Totally agree. It's perfect competition (or something close to it). When you have low barriers to entry for relatively similar goods, enough sellers will enter into the marketplace that you won't be able to profit enough that it'll be worth your time. You'll still probably be able to make some money, but not enough to merit continued publishing.
amelius 10y ago
I think it is a real shame that this effect hasn't been quantified and documented yet. Apple, Google, Steam and other platform owners have all the numbers, but they strategically keep their mouths shut. In fact they do the opposite by pretending there is good money to be made. In my opinion it is very close to fraud. And look how many people are victimized by it... Time for the government to step in to demand transparency.
ObeyTheGuts 10y ago
you make absolute no sense??? do you want everyone make money from books? it is obviously impossible... but these sites bring entry level to lowest in history, which makes competition higher and thus product becomes better. i cant see what is your alternative? make writing a book almost impossible so only chosen people can do it?????
nickjj 10y ago
There's also hundreds if not thousands of blog posts on certain topics that have dozens if not hundreds of books/video courses made for it. People tend to buy paid learning material not only for the learning experience, but how it's written which is very unique to the individual who is publishing. It doesn't matter if 5,000 other people have books on the same subject. Once I get to know an author, if his style clicks with me then I'm going to buy his book. If his style resonates with a lot of people he'll quickly rise to the top for that subject.
coldtea 10y ago
>At the current expected payoff, soon every schmuck will be uploading his book. Quality won't matter. Eventually the torrent of content for consumers will be more than consumers can hope to consume, and the expected passive income for a given creative person will go to zero. I disagree. There is no a priori "expected passive income for a given creative person". Some creators might have such expectations of course, but they are make believe unless they are validated by actual sales. There's only what the consumers actually deem appropriate to spend on one's works. Besides, everybody believes they are the ones that have the merit in a meritocracy. Even when they produce objectively crap, or maybe good stuff that's not to the tastes of the general public. >The thing all these sites have in common is that they promised to be a meritocracy for creative types. Well, here's the main issue. Meritocracy in the book market, whether Amazon or physical books, is not based on the merit of quality (which can be subjective anyway), but on the sole merit of "consumer preference". Which is also the reason why most of the people would first buy a "Star Wars" box-set rather than, say, a Kurosawa one, or buy Robert Ludlum over Graham Green. >Go to the app store. How much stuff is in the new section? How much looks good. More of it looks good than what I can follow/download, or even have a use for (because not everybody has the same use cases). E.g. for mobile painting there are at least 5 excellent apps. I don't have a use for another 100, even if they do exist.

by IIAOPSW 10y ago

dawei 10y ago

Totally agree. It's perfect competition (or something close to it). When you have low barriers to entry for relatively similar goods, enough sellers will enter into the marketplace that you won't be able to profit enough that it'll be worth your time. You'll still probably be able to make some money, but not enough to merit continued publishing.

amelius 10y ago

I think it is a real shame that this effect hasn't been quantified and documented yet. Apple, Google, Steam and other platform owners have all the numbers, but they strategically keep their mouths shut. In fact they do the opposite by pretending there is good money to be made. In my opinion it is very close to fraud. And look how many people are victimized by it... Time for the government to step in to demand transparency.

ObeyTheGuts 10y ago

you make absolute no sense??? do you want everyone make money from books? it is obviously impossible... but these sites bring entry level to lowest in history, which makes competition higher and thus product becomes better. i cant see what is your alternative? make writing a book almost impossible so only chosen people can do it?????

nickjj 10y ago

There's also hundreds if not thousands of blog posts on certain topics that have dozens if not hundreds of books/video courses made for it. People tend to buy paid learning material not only for the learning experience, but how it's written which is very unique to the individual who is publishing. It doesn't matter if 5,000 other people have books on the same subject. Once I get to know an author, if his style clicks with me then I'm going to buy his book. If his style resonates with a lot of people he'll quickly rise to the top for that subject.

coldtea 10y ago

>At the current expected payoff, soon every schmuck will be uploading his book. Quality won't matter. Eventually the torrent of content for consumers will be more than consumers can hope to consume, and the expected passive income for a given creative person will go to zero. I disagree. There is no a priori "expected passive income for a given creative person". Some creators might have such expectations of course, but they are make believe unless they are validated by actual sales. There's only what the consumers actually deem appropriate to spend on one's works. Besides, everybody believes they are the ones that have the merit in a meritocracy. Even when they produce objectively crap, or maybe good stuff that's not to the tastes of the general public. >The thing all these sites have in common is that they promised to be a meritocracy for creative types. Well, here's the main issue. Meritocracy in the book market, whether Amazon or physical books, is not based on the merit of quality (which can be subjective anyway), but on the sole merit of "consumer preference". Which is also the reason why most of the people would first buy a "Star Wars" box-set rather than, say, a Kurosawa one, or buy Robert Ludlum over Graham Green. >Go to the app store. How much stuff is in the new section? How much looks good. More of it looks good than what I can follow/download, or even have a use for (because not everybody has the same use cases). E.g. for mobile painting there are at least 5 excellent apps. I don't have a use for another 100, even if they do exist.