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Robin Good: Opinion sells more than a big brand publisher stamp of approval, and the fact that retailers allows book buyers to rate, comment and promote their favorite buys, makes the future of book selling thrive on merit and audience true appreciation.

 

This is what Ben Galley writes in his article on Social Curation, from which I have extracted these few paragraphs: "Curation used to be what the publishing houses were solely responsible for.

 

The idea was that by having a selection process where the Houses choose what and what not to publish, they can curate, or manage, what comes to market.

 

...

 

Readers essentially see a traditionally published book as a book that has passed some sort of test, and therefore must be good enough to read. A stamp of quality, if you will.

 

...

 

But times are changing. As Self-Publishing gets better and better, the 'quality stamp' of the traditional industry is losing its potency.

 

More and more people are trusting to what their fellow readers are saying rather than to where it came from or how it was published.

 

People just want a good read, and curation, it seems, has suddenly become the reader's job.

 

Thanks to retailers allowing customers to rate and comment, the readers themselves are now becoming the reason why other people buy books.

 

...

 

At the moment, it seems to be a fair and unbiased method. It’s based solely on merit, quality, and trusty old “good-readability”.

 

The question of who published it hardly ever seems to be a factor in reader comments."

 

Insightful. 8/10

 

Full article: http://www.bengalley.com/BenGalley.com/Marketing/Entries/2012/6/13_SOCIAL_CURATION.html ;

Via Robin Good