The problem with Amazon KDP is that it moved the slush pile online. Harsh but true, and given the poor selection mechanism (matching customers with products they really want) you often end up with something that sounded like a great idea, but where the execution is mediocre to poor, and the customer has bought something they didn’t enjoy much.

At best it sits on the reader’s kindle, not being read. At worst, they get sick of paying for things they didn’t enjoy much, and turn to some other form of entertainment. The traditional publishing industry have mostly been fairly useless for 30 years, but originally their primary function was to filter out the slush. If it made it onto a book-store shelf, it had been curated to a reasonable degree. Then they let ideology and their preferences (not readers preferences) dictate. Then they let agents do that for them, and that exaggerated and multiplied the effect — because you had a class of NYC ‘elites’ loftily assuming their tastes and agenda were something they could dictate to the hoi polloi – most of whom they despised and knew nothing about.

It was behind the rise in independents success. But the new Indy class – often catering to the market trad had neglected by their ignorance – has a slush problem of zero curation, and worse they have an incoming AI slop problem: which could be a tidal wave that further drowns them on.

Of course: slop and slush are theoretically rapidly dealt with. Amazon has the heuristic data – every time that a reader consumes the product. How long they take to read a book/page on average, how fast, how often etc. They have a ton of other personal data for each customer. Accurate matching is very possible. Happy customers purchase more.

I am not sure they have the appetite for the results though. And when AI spreads into movies (soon) and voice acting (audio) and every book turns into an audiobook and movie… I don’t know what happens.

I suspect some new forms of curation will get born. I just hope it makes more sense than Trad pub. But I have no doubt that somehow the cream will manage to survive and even flourish. Interesting times.