"Is Amazon Destroying or Democratizing Literature?"
I feel the need to post this article solely because of how completely outraged it made me. Sorry, Forbes, keep your business ideas out of my publishing.
Don’t insult traditional publishing or call it old-fashioned. Art is old-fashioned, if old-fashioned means that it takes a lot of time, sweat, dedication and love. Mass-production says nothing of quality. And just because Amazon may have the “means” to handle publishing (although I think that means is really dedicated editors, which they don’t have) they’re not going to use their money on actually ensuring a book’s quality. Why do we need agents, accused here as being middlemen? Well because big companies (like Amazon) can take advantage of writers, and not many people whose chosen profession is clacking away at a keyboard are experts in copyright law or deciding what rights to sell or for how much. Agents protect writers, they have the writer’s best interest at heart (at least that’s what a good agent does). And if the only books this article can site as not being able to pick up traditional publishing the first go-around are John Grishams I am so incredibly far from convinced.
