Comments on: Book Publishing’s Reality TV

By: Ted Striphas

Ted Striphas — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:10:47 +0000

@Jardinero1: Your points about American Idol are exactly on the mark — which is why I wouldn’t want to see the AI model applied whole cloth to book publishing.

Thanks for the comment!

By: Jardinero1

Jardinero1 — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:32:14 +0000

Interesting read. I too have much hope for sites like scribd. However, Scribd has had issues with “the man” as detailed here:

http://blog.mises.org/archives/009811.asp

On the issue of American Idol, it should be noted that the program is essentially a farce. The program is a vehicle for Simon Cowl to make money out of the normally, costly job of finding and vetting performers. Every performer who appears becomes, contractually, Simon Cowl’s property and Simon then promotes the performers he prefers regardless of the outcome of the voting. Those he doesn’t prefer die on the vine, even the official winner. It’s really quite sad the way he snares budding but naive performers this way.

By: Ted Striphas

Ted Striphas — Mon, 25 May 2009 22:59:14 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Jonathan. I agree completely with your points.

I don’t know how apt a parallel this is, but I’m thinking about how INXS found its new lead singer (for better or for worse) through a reality TV program. I wonder if it will ever come to pass where there will be formal feeder sites for amateur/unsigned talent in book publishing?

By: Books, NOW! — The Late Age of Print

Books, NOW! — The Late Age of Print — Mon, 25 May 2009 22:08:44 +0000

[...] ← Book Publishing’s Reality TV [...]

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:01:38 +0000

I think it will be like the music business. Blogs compete with other serialized media well, but online books will still need publicity even if they have distribution. A band on myspace or bandcamp looks the same whether they are major label or indie, but few still break through without some kind of label to get them into circulation. Maybe this will change and we’ll all be going to recommendation engines for everything, though that would be kind of disappointing.