The Internet Reformation: cheap mass publishing, no more gate keepers, almost unlimited freedom of expression


Everyone is familiar with the term, the internet revolution.  Another way of looking at is to compare the internet to the Reformation.  The Reformation of Christendom came about partly because of the new technology, the Guttenburg printing press.  Without getting into to details, the idea of an internet reformation is the notion that the new technology, the internet, will reform society.  I do not wish to get into all that because this is not a political/philosophical forum.  However, it is clear that the internet is refroming the publishing industry.  MOS useres have already commented on the impact of the internet on dead wood news papers and broadcast news versus the internet and I have no desire to rehash that here.  I have recently taken the plunge to publish a novel I'm writing in serial form on Amazon Kindle Direct, The CFR Collusion, an adtion-adventure space opera.  I took this action because of my frustration with the publishing industry, the so called "gate keepers" in general and those corrupt internet "agencies" which exist merely to part unpublished writers from their money.  I was spurred to do this by a chance Tweet I saw today re-Tweeted by Felicia Day on Twitter.  That led to a link that mentioned a writer who has made over a million dollars selling her book for 99 cents.  Here is the link~http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2011/03/why-some-e-books-cost-more-than.html  This guy explains it a lot better then I could so I suggest people chech this out.

 

If any of you hopeful writers have any comments please add your two cents worth as you like.

Discussion started by Steve V , on 21 August 02:12 PM
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Steve V
an interesting take on internet censorship http://www.thedailybell.com/3728/Anthony-Wile-The-Empire-Strikes-Back
Saturday, 24 March 2012 09:41
 
Steve V
Just in case anyone out there has not noticed @abstractplane is the author mentioned in the above link. Here it is again if you are interested in how he did it. http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2011/03/why-some-e-books-cost-more-than.html
Saturday, 11 February 2012 15:48
 
Steve V
Self publishers out selling the dead tree guys http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/martin-perry/kindle-selfpublishers-soo_b_1143830.html
Tuesday, 13 December 2011 03:32
 
Steve V
Space Command and the Planets of Doom just mentioned by @abstractplane is clearly a success story. An example of what can happen when your work goes viral.
Thursday, 17 November 2011 14:50
 
Steve V
Captain Smith, you are having a prolific posting day, I see. Your point is interesting. The end user, the reader is all important, or else why bother to write it down? Well, other then the fact that writing it down permits one to complete a thought without going on to something else and never finishing it. Was that a run on sentence? No, it was a thought. Just checking.

Getting the readers into the desired "mind space", that is the crux of it. I suppose that is what we writers are here on MOS for, as well as learning from on another. I promise after I finish writing my serial novel, and I have no clue how long that will take, I will tackle this problem much more seriously and share all my findings here. Mean while, I'm open to suggestions.
Tuesday, 18 October 2011 14:46
 
AgentSmith
Although the revolution is huge - the question really isn't about publishers - its about readers. The internet revolution puts the responsibility on readers. If publishers can't make money off distributing content, and it becomes the writers who distribute their own - it becomes the reader's responsibility, really, to keep the system going.

If the world only has carpenters and no buyers-of-chairs to buy and say "hey, I like Chair X by Carpenter Y", then everybody starves. Same for us. Writers need to support each other in getting the word out there to readers - and get readers into the mind-space of using their social media to promote their favorite "independent" authors as well. Sometimes that means cross-work - your newest reader may blog about cars or something - why not mention them?
Tuesday, 18 October 2011 14:14
 
rmoore080
Right, Steve - this calls for immediate discussion!

Here's one of my short-short fiction blogs:
http://earthboundwhimsy.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, 18 October 2011 13:01
 
RogerVenk
Once gain Steve V, I couldn't have said it better myself...thanks for that last post.
Tuesday, 18 October 2011 09:53
 
Steve V
Enough talk! Time for action! Who else has original fiction (not fan fiction) posted on the internet? Let us know by posting a link to it here.

Here is mine:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_at_ep_srch?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=Steven Vandervelde

Here is Roger's:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?rh=i:stripbooks,n:283155,k:roger+venk&keywords=roger+venk&ie=UTF8&qid=1318926009&ajr=0

The above works are for sale, cheep. Some people like to give their hard work away, post a link to freebies as well. But, I suggest you put it up for sale on Amazon or some other venue if you thought it was worth writing and think it is worth reading!
Monday, 17 October 2011 23:24
 
Steve V
One way of looking at this: All us wanna be's don't hate the publishing industry. We'd all love to be published. E-books give us a chance to show our stuff with free electronic publishing and get paid a little something for the effort. I suppose that is just restating what Roger Venk first wrote. But it is up to the publishing industry to compete with e-books. They can't turn back the clock.
Friday, 23 September 2011 12:17
 
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