Originally it was going to be “over the last twenty years” but I decided to be more flexible.
A lot of discussions about how society has changed or how the world is different always circle around to smartphones, social media, “no one talks to each other in person, they’re on their phones always” and the like.
Outside of those topics, what else has changed, by your perception?
I know this will sound really condescending, but you can sort entries by highest ratings on any good website. You do not actually have to browse through every single book ever made.
No worries. I freely admit that my entire opinion on the subject of self-publishing is elitist and condescending as all hell. So I can put on my big-boy pants and take a bit of my own medicine back. No worries.
But no, I didn’t take your response as condescending. You’re right that a person can sort and filter. But a filter should almost be an option, not a necessity. I’ll happily sort by genre, or page count, or yes…even ratings, to find something interesting to me.
But I shouldn’t have to have a button that says “sort out any crap that hasn’t even gone through a cursory elementary school grammar course”. There’s a line in the sand of what should and shouldn’t be acceptable in any business environment that nominally wants people to spend money with them, and “making my customers weed out unprofessional garbage” should (IMO) be that line. Amazon, Kobo, or wherever, should at the bare minimum be telling people front and centre, “this is the minimum level of quality you can expect…feel free to sort however you like, but we at least guarantee that every book will meet a certain level of literacy.”
We seem to be operating on very different frameworks of thought. I’ve made my case to you in its entirety and you are not satisfied with it, there aren’t any more details I can include that you might be missing, so I think that’s where this discussion ends. We simply have different values, and I’m ill-equipped with hard evidence to attempt to change yours. In any case, thank you for being so polite while we argued this subject. It’s nice to see other people trying to start a tradition of not blowing up at each other on these new social sites, unlike Reddit. I hope the next book you read is immensely satisfying.