Having been out of the indie author ecosystem for several years and just recently stuck my toe back in, I’d like to share a few thoughts.
In 2010 when I started self-publishing, sites like Goodreads (pre-Amazon buy out, of course) were great places for indies. Free discussion forums abounded across the web and Amazon’s policy was to serve up recommendations based on what a buyer asked for or had read, not sponsored or add supported selections. Amazon facilitated direct communication between authors and readers; we had message public message boards where that allow us authors to control the discussion. We all know that none of this is any longer the case, so no need to get all of that.
Today, of course, the entire ecosystem is monitored, controlled, pay-walled, and gate-kept. When I started, one of the constant refrains was that ebook publishing would remove the traditional gatekeepers of editors at publishing houses whose business model depended on a limited number of authors and a limited number of selections to funnel readers to their selected authors.
Now, I’m convinced that there are more gate-keepers than ever, not less.
We also, of course, (me in particular), thought ebooks would triumph and that print books would go the way of the dinosaur, and I’m glad I was wrong in that.
Today, what we clearly have is an environment where “gold rush outfitters” control and dominate every avenue and forum, every marketplace and venue, and bootstrapping your way into the market is well nigh impossible.
Capitalism is fine, of course, because everyone wants to make money, but I do think an opportunity was lost when the old way of doing things was swept away in favor of industrial production.
Indie authors don’t control their own fate any more, at least even to the minor extent that it once did, and I think it’s sad.