Good Content Doesn't Get Buried By Bad Content

from the make-more-good-content dept

We've heard a particular argument a few times about the fact that just about anyone can create content thanks to new tools of creation, distribution and promotion and that all this new content somehow "buries" the good content. We have no doubt that much new content being produced is, in fact, pretty bad. I've never quite understood the argument, though, that bad content harms good content. You just have to ignore the bad content and follow the good content. What that means is that the world just needs good filters, and we keep seeing more and more of those showing up every day. In the music world, there's a ton of new music being produced all the time -- and much of it isn't to my liking. But at the same time I feel like I'm living in renaissance of wonderful music, because I'm able to find fantastic new music all the time via a variety of tools: friends, blogs, Spotify, Turntable.fm, Pandora, and even a few cool (small) record labels who I follow because they release a ton of music I like.

Apparently the same sort of argument is going on among elitists in the ebook world. Thankfully, JA Konrath has jumped into the debate and brought some sense to the world, explaining how authors shouldn't complain about all the new ebooks coming out:

First of all, there are billions of paper books on planet earth right now, but there was never any talk about being too many, or worries the paper market was saturated. What a ludicrous concept.

Author: Do you want put publish my new book?

Publisher: I'm sorry, but there are already too many books. We can't print anymore.

Silly, ain't it?

Furthermore, he points out that research has shown that people who have ebook readers actually tend to read more books than those who read paper books -- suggesting that the market for books is expanding. And, he notes that's likely to continue as ebook readers continue to sell quickly (outpacing the number of new ebooks, even). But the key point is that if you produce quality work, there are mechanisms to make those rise to the top via various filters.

As long as websites like Amazon make browsing easy, the cream has the potential to rise to the top. You don't have to be a monster bestseller. A hardcore niche group of 10,000 fans can support a writer quite easily. Write two ebooks per year at $2.99, and three shorts at 99 cents, and you're making $50k a year.

But ebooks don't stop selling after a year. They sell forever. And good books will eventually find more than just 10,000 readers. And every new book you write will find new readers along with old fans.

Going back to the 2031 figures, an author will have a much better chance of finding those career-sustaining 10,000 readers when there are 100 million ereaders out there.

Or, as his final sentence states, just keep making good content:

And for those not there, remember that cream rises. If you made cream, and it hasn't risen yet: make more cream.

I'd argue (and I think he'd agree) that you do have to do a bit more than just make good content. Connecting with fans and doing more with them certainly helps. But no one putting out bad content is going to impact things if you have good content. Just keep producing that good content.

Filed Under: content, filters, good content

Is The Internet Enabling Bad Content... Or Killing Bad Content?

from the can't-hide-behind-marketing-any-more dept

One of the common refrains we hear from the modern Luddite is that one of the awful things about today's internet culture is that it's flooded with too much "crap." One of our regular critics in the comments insists that key point and our failure to realize what this means for the world is why he spends so much time attacking everything I post. He's worried about what all that crappy content means for the world. Of course, that always makes me wonder why he bothers spending time paying attention to crappy content. After all, one of the nice things about the internet is that you only have to pay attention to what you like. It's truly an elitist position to complain about the crap that's out there. The thing is, it's really not a problem.

First, what may be crap to you may be wonderful to someone else. The idea that there's some objective measure of what's great and what's crap when it comes to content for everyone is just silly. As someone who likes a few niche areas of music, the ability for me to find out about more artists from around the globe has been amazing. And, yes, even if I discover some of them aren't very good, it's easy to move on and find the next band that's really fantastic.

But the bigger issue is that even if there's a ton of crappy content out there, this is really a filter problem. And, some are realizing that the reality is that the internet actually helps stop crappy content (found via obhi and the infdist panel). The point raised in the link is that, historically, professional content creators were able to deliver bad content all the time -- and just hide it behind a massive marketing campaign. People would go see awful movies because they didn't realize how awful they were.

But today, that's no longer true. Word of mouth travels fast, and is attached to all sorts of content. Haven't heard of the movies playing at the theater? Just look them up quickly online and you'll get an immediate sense of whether or not people liked it. The fact is that the internet acts as a filter to help you avoid crappy content. It still gets created, but it's even less likely to get in the way than it did before. Back before the internet, when I used to go searching for new obscure bands in a particular genre, half the time I'd be making a total guess about the quality of an album (sometimes based on the album artwork). But, today, I no longer have to do that. I can see what others think, I can sample the music via their own websites, etc.

There may be more "crap" online, because now everyone can get their own content out there, but it's easier than ever to avoid that crap and easier than ever to find the good stuff -- and that's true both at the amateur and the professional level. The internet doesn't cause anyone to be overloaded by crap... unless you're bad at using the internet.

Filed Under: bad content, content, filters, good content, internet