2 ms·

I think the better question is: which writers is Amazon killing by favoring popularity over discovery? A thousand rediscovered or newly discovered writers are b

• lolinder 3y ago
  It's not like publishing and receiving attention for books was easy before Amazon—most writers would never see publication in any format because the gatekeepers wouldn't let them through. Amazon's filter is different in that it's created a world where everyone can publish but few people get attention for it, but it's not obvious to me that their mechanisms are smothering creativity for profit any more than the large publishing houses did in the 20th century.
  • 23B1 3y ago
    I'm not talking about getting a book published, I'm talking about the joy of discovery, which can lead to success for authors who otherwise don't have the 'right' commercial approach (or the right skin color or background or gender). And what do I mean by success? Unique and special and important creative people living a sufficiently middle-class lifestyle to continue providing us with their gift(s). Amazon's filter has created a world where that is nigh on impossible. I can scan the spines of thousands of books at Powell's or Strand in an hour, with Mother Chaos guiding my hand, and come away with twenty new discoveries.
    • lolinder 3y ago
      > And what do I mean by success? Unique and special and important creative people living a sufficiently middle-class lifestyle to continue providing us with their gift(s). > Amazon's filter has created a world where that is nigh on impossible. You haven't really addressed my main point, which is that this kind of outcome was always a rarity—before Amazon the filter was the publishing houses. If you couldn't persuade them you were worth publishing, then you didn't get to share. Period. Amazon first created a world where literally everyone can publish anything they want. They then had to create filters to help people actually find what they're looking for in that deluge of content. The result might be that it's harder to find new content, but that's not because it's harder to make a living publishing good books.
      • spondylosaurus 3y ago
        One counterpoint is that there still are/have been plenty of indie publishing houses who take on books that the Big Five-type publishers won't take, but even then those indie books are printed at a much smaller scale and don't generally make it into big retail bookstores. And so we arrive back at the discoverablity problem :P
        • 23B1 3y ago
          "don't generally make it into big retail bookstores" ...which of course use the same algorithmic approach as Amazon to maximizing popularity and volume over quality or creativity. The book marketplace is now the equivalent of H&M or McDonalds.
      • 23B1 3y ago
        Your point was completely orthogonal to mine, which is why I didn't address it. It's harder finding new or worthwhile reads because Amazon is incentivized by volume, not quality; it's the same reason high-quality clothing brands also don't sell on AMZN.
        • lolinder 3y ago
          > I think the better question is: which writers is Amazon killing by favoring popularity over discovery? > And what do I mean by success? Unique and special and important creative people living a sufficiently middle-class lifestyle to continue providing us with their gift(s). > Amazon's filter has created a world where that is nigh on impossible. These paragraphs are what I was replying to. If you wanted to talk about Amazon's effects on consumer's ability to find things rather than its effects on authors' ability to make a living, don't bring up the latter. You can't make claims about Amazon's effects on authors and then act like I'm going off topic when I call those claims out as problematic.
          • 23B1 3y ago
            I'm sure King Bezos is very grateful to the men of his round table.