Are Readers The Winners In The New Publishing Game?

It’s been said that the transformation going on in publishing is making clear that the only “necessary” participants in the Book-World are the author and the reader.

What do you think?

Will we one day have molded technology to our needs so perfectly that the writer can easily transfer their creations to readers who can easily find exactly what they want?

In a previous post, What Do Readers Really Want . . . ?, there was a survey about readers’ desires.

In the post, Getting Published Is Easy ~ Getting Readers Is Hard Work, some of the issues of writers finding readers was explored.

In the post, Genre Reconsidered ~ Reader-Driven Fiction, among other stimulating questions, these two were asked:

“Should more readers demand that authors forget about genre and write what the unique combination of theme, plot, and character demands of their creativity?”

“Is it conceivable that the reading public could select books based on plot characteristics or character interactions or theme arcs?”

I’ve also written about how I’m a maverick author in the way I find my readers…

I do believe that, eventually, readers will have an exceedingly easy time in finding exactly what they desire; and, that they will become the primary “gatekeepers” in the Book-World.

There are already a number of initiatives to help the reader gain more control.

One of the most important is GoodReads.

I want to close this post out with some reassurance for readers that they are a critical and Necessary partner in the fast-changing arena of the Book-World by quoting from an article on Information Today, Inc.:

“Goodreads mission is ‘to help people find and share books they love. Along the way, we plan to improve the process of reading and learning throughout the world’. An interesting, collaborative model, Goodreads supports core needs and interests of both readers and their authors—as well as the supportive system that supports them (bookstores, libraries, schools, publishers). “Reading may be a solitary activity,” [Goodread’s founder and CEO, Otis] Chandler notes. “But what you’re reading and what you think of what you’re reading are ideas. And ideas are much better if they’re shared.”

“Author and blogger John Corwin notes that ‘while Twitter, Facebook, G+ and the other social networks offer you a way to reach the masses (some of whom have questionable literary interests), Goodreads has already filtered out the weeds and offers you some of the most voracious readers on the planet.’”
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