We’ve entered a time where getting a book to market is as simple as 1, 2, 3. First, write the book. Second, make sure it gets a thorough edit. Third, self-publish in print and e-book form. Boom — “published” author. That isn’t to say it’s easy, but there has certainly never been a better time to get a manuscript off the shelf and into the hands of interested readers.

But some are asking, in a world where anyone can become published, how do you find something “good” to read? How do readers sift through the exploding number of titles to find the gems in the pile?

The answer may be, “just as they do now.” Even with a flood of new titles available, it stands to reason readers will continue to choose titles using the same criteria they have in the past. Google has determined (through some fancy algorithms) that there are nearly 130 million published books in the world. Readers have managed thus far to sort through those millions of book titles to find the ones they’re interested in. With that in mind, one can only assume readers will be able to do the same as the self-published market explodes over the next few years.

People gravitate towards what they like. They find authors or genres or subject matters they care about and are interested in, and make choices out of that pool. In fact, adding more titles will only grow the pot for readers, giving them even greater options on the subjects they enjoy.

Author Scott Nicholson explains it well in his article on the topic. He offers the analogy that despite her popularity, he has no idea what Lady Gaga sings, nor does he ever care to. But he finds new music that does appeal to him, when he wants to, through the channels he always has. Finding book titles would be the same. He finds and reads what he already likes.

Perhaps the growing wave of self-published titles will create some complexity and debris in the market, but how much it affects consumer buying and reading habits, if at all, remains to be seen.

Tags: book publishing, e-book market, e-books, self-publishing

This entry was posted on Friday, August 13th, 2010 at 9:23 am and is filed under Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.