‘Our "Publish, then filter" future’
Baen has partly crowd-sourced the selection of manuscripts. But what about the ultimate crowd-sourcing—letting buyers choose from an enlarged pool of books? Can the right Web-tools then enable customers to find the right gems? It’s a debate now happening on the eBook Community list. See list moderator and TeleBlog contributor Jon Noring’s initial post and responses from Zumaya Publications Executive Editor Elizabeth K. Burton, publishing consultant Marion Gropen and others.
My take: We need a variety of business models and book selection methods. Can we automate the search for the next Moby Dick? I’ve told of the potential of algorithms, but they’re just one tool to consider, especially when looking for works of literary distinction.
Technorati Tags: Baen
March 23rd, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Thanks, David, for mentioning the discussion of this topic in The eBook Community.
I welcome everyone interested in this topic to join the discussion.
One important addition to David’s article above is that I believe various types of powerful, web-based social networking tools will be employed to help people find the books of interest to them.
After all, it is ultimately word-of-mouth – how others rate a particular book – that leads others to consider reading the book.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:34 am
I totally agree with Jon. The future must be “Publish, then filter”, NOT the other way around. The first impressions that new authors gave to publishers rarely impressive. Two hundred years ago, Jane Austen’s “First Impressions” was turned down. The novel was later published after she became famous, now known as “Pride and Prejudice”. A few months ago, the novel submitted by David Lassman was again rejected by 18 of the UK’s biggest publishers and agents. Mr. Lassman made only minor changes from the orignal such as the names of characters.
In fact, we are actively developing a system to let anyone publish and then filter. A complete free pakage will be ready by the end of this year, which includes creation of cover images, conversion from Microsoft Word to EPUB format and a XHTML editor. The published works will be filtered by donations.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:52 am
The “Publish then Filter” model is the primary methodology for blog creation and selection. For example the blog we are currently reading, TeleRead, was started without the imprimatur of a publisher or editor I believe. However, the individual articles at TeleRead are under the editorial control of David Rothman. In addition some of the most popular blogs are part of collections that are owned and controlled by a single publisher. Gizmodo, Valleywag, Wonkette, Gawker, Lifehacker and others are managed by Nick Denton who has become a multi-millionaire. Apparently managerial oversight and old fashioned hierarchies can be reimposed even in the blogging world.