Writing

This is the logical conclusion of Amazon's push to be the sole publisher/distributor in the world. Yes, everyone who thinks he's an author will be able to get his book published by Amazon and he will call himself a published author. Yes, your boring Uncle Joe will show up at the family dinner boasting that he's now a published author.

But there'll be no neighborhood bookstore. No bookstores at all. And you'll have an online choice of a hundred million e-books written by a whole host of Uncle Joes, books indistinguishable from each other because no one has vetted them, edited them, or put their seal of approval on them.

Yes, it's a GREAT time to be a lousy self-published author. But will the rest of us -- consumers and writers alike -- actually find it a better place just because we can now buy a crap e-book for 99 cents?

There's a place for traditional publishers and traditionally published books. And if they want to price their product higher than the dreck books, why shouldn't they be able to? No one's stopping you from choosing the dreck books. If the price is too high for the quality books, then don't buy them. Stick to the dreck instead.