Re: Our "publish then filter" future...

Hi Suzanne,

Excellent idea! But this is unlikely to happen soon, unfortunately, 
because freedom of choice is what traditional publishers want to avoid. 
Just as the big beer companies like to tie bars and pubs to their 
particular brand of beer, so publishers would love to lock their 
distributors and customers into their own books, and especially those 
recent issues over which they have monopoly control and into which they 
are putting all their money in the form of promotion and publicity. 
Nobody knows what will sell best when customers are given a free choice 
of all the books that have ever been published, but it's a good bet that 
it won't be the latest Harry Potter knock-off.

Only when a universal site has demonstrated that it can sell books will 
economic pressure force publishers to list their books there. Even then 
they will go kicking and screaming all the way.

Jon.

Suzanne Francis wrote:
> I agree with your analysis, and I think it will come to pass.  My 
> thoughts are that we need a comprehensive site, like abebooks, that 
> corralled all ebook media. It would minutely categorize them by genre, 
> sub-genre and subject, and include a 25 word synopsis, so that you could 
> scan 20 or more books on each page.  Each would also have ratings, and 
> ebay-type feedback (no long reviews!) along with cover art and a short 
> excerpt, all accessible from the book's main page .  The site could be 
> ad-supported, both with CPC and banner ads from authors looking to 
> support their work.  The idea would be to make it the first destination 
> for anyone looking to buy an ebook, so that they could sift through the 
> dreck to find the exact book they want and then be whisked away to to 
> that book's actual site to complete the purchase.  Later they would come 
> back and add their rating to the books quotient, so that others would 
> know if the purchase was a good one.

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