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Notes -
Negotiating for shelf space with nationwide bookstores is definitely not "zero moat", and neither is the actual industry of getting a massive amount of books printed at economic scale.
What changed was the proportion of men involved in finding and publishing books, and the proportion, thereby, of men's book that were publishing. SEE:
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For a broke kid, buying books off amazon has a much higher barrier to entry than picking a shiny cover out of a lineup at their school library. Especially since if they're on a computer and don't have a pre-existing love of reading, it's very likely that they'll just do something other than reading instead of doggedly sorting through the monsterfucking romantasy slop on the amazon bestseller lists.
(I'm pretty sure I addressed all this in my post?)
...also, don't discount the value and difficult of professional editing and cover-design. Publishers certainly don't. Traditionally published novels have a far greater up-front investment designed to make them marketable and readable, and that pays on at the back and as it encourages people to start and keep reading.
Unironically a good idea, I was thinking of self-publishing my book anyway and it might be worth it to find and sponsor a few niche youtubers to promote it. Thank you!
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