"I maintain an ongoing survey of Internet Publishing and self publishing, so that it is now possible for any writer with a book to get it published at nominal cost or free, and to have it on sale at booksellers like Amazon.com"
About this Quote
Piers Anthony isn’t cheering a brave new world of letters so much as quietly reassigning power. The key phrase is “I maintain an ongoing survey”: it’s the voice of a working pro watching the industry’s plumbing, not a starry-eyed futurist. Anthony came up in an era when publishing was a fortress of gatekeepers - agents, editors, print runs, warehouse space. By foregrounding logistics (“nominal cost or free,” “on sale at booksellers like Amazon.com”), he treats publication less as a coronation and more as a distribution problem newly solved.
The intent is practical and slightly evangelical: he’s telling writers the bottleneck has moved. You no longer need institutional permission to exist in the marketplace. The subtext, though, is double-edged. “Possible” does a lot of work here. He’s promising access, not readership; a listing, not a career. In the Amazon age, being “on sale” is the floor, not the ceiling, and Anthony knows it. The line gestures at a democratic opening while sidestepping the brutal reality that discoverability, marketing, and quality control become the author’s burden once the old gate is gone.
Context matters: an established genre novelist speaking as digital platforms hollowed out midlist security and rewired prestige. There’s a faint note of professional defensiveness, too - a reminder that veterans are not obsolete; they’re adapting. His optimism is technological, not literary: the revolution isn’t in what gets written, but in who gets to press “publish,” and what that permission is now worth.
The intent is practical and slightly evangelical: he’s telling writers the bottleneck has moved. You no longer need institutional permission to exist in the marketplace. The subtext, though, is double-edged. “Possible” does a lot of work here. He’s promising access, not readership; a listing, not a career. In the Amazon age, being “on sale” is the floor, not the ceiling, and Anthony knows it. The line gestures at a democratic opening while sidestepping the brutal reality that discoverability, marketing, and quality control become the author’s burden once the old gate is gone.
Context matters: an established genre novelist speaking as digital platforms hollowed out midlist security and rewired prestige. There’s a faint note of professional defensiveness, too - a reminder that veterans are not obsolete; they’re adapting. His optimism is technological, not literary: the revolution isn’t in what gets written, but in who gets to press “publish,” and what that permission is now worth.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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