[HoneyBadger]

crack dealer, in practice.

Publishers, atleast the big ones with the most money, have one purpose, and that is to sell as many books as possible to as many people as possible. That's their purpose. They don't give a flying expletive about quality, if they can sell quantity. That's how they gain their success. They cut down trees, chop them up, smear ink on the wood pulp, and feed it to you. And if you don't believe that, then you're watching, and enjoying, television far too much, and it's brainwashed you.

How anyone could even concieve, let alone announce in public, in this forum particularly, that publishers-by and large-were arbiters and dispensers of only the finest quality literature, refined, weighed, and cut like a pure porcelain cocaine-illicit, and intoxicating-because they had their readers' best interests in mind, instead of being merchants of whatever addictive poison they could get people to pay money for and waste their time on; that here was some kind of happy circle of noble human enlightenment and betterment, where the cream rises to the top, bourne on the wings of our wiser, better angels from the hallowed temples of Publishdom...it's not just beyond me, it's beyond all naivete. Scary-crazy, like people who sell their homes and give the money to televangelists.

Publishing books is a big business, that operates like the gaming industry, like Hollywood, and like television. Why risk thousands and thousands of dollars on something that only a small portion of the population (well educated, discerning, bookworms) is actually going to appreciate, when you can get a higher profit by printing another easy to read schlockfest. And if you have something of quality already, and can make it sell better by tacking on a bunch of stuff that doesn't add to the quality, but DOES add to the appeal, then all the better.

Ever notice how books used to be mostly complete from beginning to end, but then they all turned into trilogies? And now they just go on and on for 7, 8, 9+ books? It's because the publishers know that once they have an audience, they can hold on to a lot of it and sell it books over and over again, until the writer drops dead. And the publishers don't even have to worry about the quality of the books because-guess what?-people will *keep reading them* even if they're awful, because they get hooked. Just like crack.

Ofcourse, I know the end results are better-but if you shoot someone, and they live and go on to win Nobel Prize for Peace because of their outspoken commitment to worldwide gun-control, does that make it ok?