Does Anyone Absolutely HAVE To Be Between The Author And Their Readers?

Amazon executive Russell Grandinetti, in the New York Times, has said:

"[T]he only really necessary people in the publishing process now are the writer and reader. Everyone who stands between those two has both risk and opportunity."

I actually read that quote in an article by Mathew Ingram in GigaOM, last October, called, On the death of book publishers and other middlemen.

Just a bit further on in that article, Ingram says: "What's interesting about Grandinetti's comment, however, is that it doesn't exclude Amazon itself — or other book retailers — from being disrupted."

Can you imagine yourself, if your a writer, or others who are writers, taking a manuscript, editing it, formatting it, then making it available to readers directly through the Internet?

Can writers edit themselves?

Can they find all (or, ultra-realistically, most of) the typos?

Can they format ebooks properly?

Most interestingly, can they produce print versions then distribute them?

Actually, all those questions could be answered, "Yes".

Technically, it depends on the writer's abilities and bank account, but I'd still love to see your comments on that series of questions…

If we come to the conclusion that Someone has to be between the writer and the reader, Ingram provides a good benchmark for their necessity with this comment:

"…give authors what they most want and need. It's a quick and painless way of reaching their readers — as many readers as possible, in as many different ways as possible. Also, make sure they are really adding value to that relationship with an author, not just counting on the former gatekeeper status to keep authors in their stables."

Can you even imagine one writer who could take their manuscript and provide it, all by themselves, to thousands of readers?

Bonus Tip for Writers Reading This Post:

Steal the idea of a lone writer successfully providing books (or, short stories) to a large audience of readers; show what they have to struggle through to achieve the necessary skills beyond producing a manuscript; show them up against those who would judge them harshly; go ahead, write a story that has two protagonists: The Writer and The Reader :-)

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Tagged: Amazon, author, Gigaom, Mathew Ingram, publisher, reader, Russell Grandinetti, writer