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Publishers definitely still have a role in the world to play. I've looked at self-published stuff that has embarrassing and, frankly, appalling typos in them (l

Publishers definitely still have a role in the world to play. I've looked at self-published stuff that has embarrassing and, frankly, appalling typos in them (like, did you even look at the red underlines in Microsoft Word before publishing this?). The good ones go beyond just editing, though: they are "curators" and establish a brand or reputation for quality. "Penguin Classics", for example, is usually a few bucks more than other brands that might publish the same novel, but particularly for translated works, you're paying for Penguin's commitment to a quality translation. On the other end, there's the Publisher role as providing the niche catered experience, like these guys I discovered recently: https://dmrbooks.com/ https://dmrbooks.com/ I'm enjoying some of their anthologies so far, particular the dedication to tracking down the unedited versions of obscure works by famous fantasy authors.

shantnutiwari 5y ago
>>I've looked at self-published stuff that has embarrassing and, frankly, appalling typos in them 2010 called, they want their attitude back. This whole "Self published stuff is low quality, only legacy publishers edit their books" is such a terrible meme, it needs to die. It might have been true in 2007-10 when indie publishing really took off, I can't believe people are still repeating this.
- AdmiralAsshat 5y ago
  I take it you've never looked at the self-published stuff on Kindle Unlimited or put up for Free/$1 on Amazon Kindle. I've seen programming books published in the past year that are supposed to be "C Programming Exercises", but in reality are little more than poorly-copied solutions from Stack Overflow. It's still a problem. I'm not knocking every indie author who wanted to self-publish their first Sci-Fi novel. Far from it. Traditional publishers can churn out low-quality garbage with the rest of them, particularly when trying to make a quick buck by reprinting Public Domain works. My point is that it's always a race to the bottom for some people, and digital publishing has made it much easier, since it has largely eliminated the cost associated with production.
LanceH 5y ago
There is a very strong selection bias with publishers. Publishers aren't necessarily worth something because they reject bad material.
- AdmiralAsshat 5y ago
  Sure, but if they have a track record of publishing material you like, it stands to reason that you might have a better-than-normal chance of the pulling a random book off the shelf by this publisher and liking it, no? I consider it comparable to record labels. I follow some small/mid-sized record labels on Bandcamp that have signed several bands I like. Their releases tend to stick to a particular sound or genre that I enjoy. If the label drops a new album by an unknown artist, I am more likely to give the artist a try, because the label has a good track record in my mind. It certainly helps if the album is free to listen to before buying, but you get the idea.

shantnutiwari 5y ago

>>I've looked at self-published stuff that has embarrassing and, frankly, appalling typos in them 2010 called, they want their attitude back. This whole "Self published stuff is low quality, only legacy publishers edit their books" is such a terrible meme, it needs to die. It might have been true in 2007-10 when indie publishing really took off, I can't believe people are still repeating this.

AdmiralAsshat 5y ago
I take it you've never looked at the self-published stuff on Kindle Unlimited or put up for Free/$1 on Amazon Kindle. I've seen programming books published in the past year that are supposed to be "C Programming Exercises", but in reality are little more than poorly-copied solutions from Stack Overflow. It's still a problem. I'm not knocking every indie author who wanted to self-publish their first Sci-Fi novel. Far from it. Traditional publishers can churn out low-quality garbage with the rest of them, particularly when trying to make a quick buck by reprinting Public Domain works. My point is that it's always a race to the bottom for some people, and digital publishing has made it much easier, since it has largely eliminated the cost associated with production.

LanceH 5y ago

There is a very strong selection bias with publishers. Publishers aren't necessarily worth something because they reject bad material.

AdmiralAsshat 5y ago
Sure, but if they have a track record of publishing material you like, it stands to reason that you might have a better-than-normal chance of the pulling a random book off the shelf by this publisher and liking it, no? I consider it comparable to record labels. I follow some small/mid-sized record labels on Bandcamp that have signed several bands I like. Their releases tend to stick to a particular sound or genre that I enjoy. If the label drops a new album by an unknown artist, I am more likely to give the artist a try, because the label has a good track record in my mind. It certainly helps if the album is free to listen to before buying, but you get the idea.