Book publishers see their role as gatekeepers shrink (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Los Angeles Times ^ | December 26, 2010 | Alex Pham

[sidetracked]

Baen also has almost 100 books for free on it’s website under the “Free Library” link at the bottom of the page. You can download them to Kindle or to your computer and read the first book or two in a seris. That’s where I found Drake, Weber, et al... Love them all.

[Cinnamontea]

The words of former gatekeeper Gardner Dozois...

His words are further proof that we need to dump the gatekeepers.

[redgolum]

I love the Kindle, for the very reason the writer states. I can read fiction that isn't PC. Browsing the SciFi section at Borders resembles the Romance section, only with Vampires and wereseals.

For instance, I am reading a lot of self published stuff on the Kindle by a guy who goes by Vaughn Heppner. He has a series of books about what the world could have been like pre Genesis Flood. Good reads.

A major publishing house would never let that story see the light of day. Now he could use the help of a good editor at times, but over all they are good stories at a cheap price.

[Bobalu]

http://www.baen.com/library/

[ReneeLynn]

Excellent news for writers. It is for me anyway. The economy is so lousy what publisher wants to take the chance on new authors? They want to stick with their proven writers. How many really good stories never make it to print because of economy? It’s good there is an evolving alternate source. Another outlet for the unpublished is great.

[RayChuang88]

With the price of e-book readers going one way--straight down--you're going to see a LOT of authors thumb their noses at publishing companies and publish directly to e-book publishers like Amazon.com, Apple's iBook section of the iTunes Store, and new companies that publish books in the ePUB format. Indeed, I'll almost bet even money that by the end of 2011 even holdouts like J. K. Rowling and John Grisham will have their works in e-book format.

As a new owner of an 32 GB 4G iPod touch, I can use Amazon's Kindle app or Barnes & Noble's Nook app and be able to read a huge selection of new books on my device. This right there is threatening to become a huge game-changer in the publishing world.

[abb]

As has the game changed in the ‘news’ world. I’ve not read any complete books on the web - I can’t keep up with the dead-tree “to read” shelf of books in my bookcase.

I figure I’m about 200 books behind...

[Bobalu]

I don't have time to watch as much news as I'd like either.

I record news and documentary shows and play them back on the PC using the free VLC media player. It can speed up the video while maintaining the original pitch of the audio....I can get through a 1hr news program or documentary in half the time :-)

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

The media player that fulfills all your needs. It handles DVDs, (S)VCDs, Audio CDs, web streams, TV cards and much more. With VLC, there is no need to continually update many different codec packs. VLC comes with nearly every codec built in! And whats more, VLC can play back your files, even if the media is damaged! Missing or broken pieces wont stop VLC. All the video and audio information that remains can be played.

[Chode]

[fightinJAG]

What an interesting site. Thanks for the link.

[Tribune7]

ping