I like the web novel/light novel/anime ecosystem in Japan. It produces a far, far higher Sturgeon quotient but it gets a lot of people writing that otherwise wouldn't have and they get into themes that our high barrier-to-entry publishing system doesn't.

I don't actually read web serials because bad editing makes my eyes bleed, but I appreciate that it happens.

>>7892135
No they don't. At least not for the most part. 99% of web/light """""novels""""" are just generic high school waifushit or fantasy. The western equivalent of that is the kindle store and it's basically just as bad.

>>7892148
>99% of web/light """""novels""""" are just generic high school waifushit or fantasy.
That was exactly what I meant by a higher Sturgeon quotient. And there is some really generic crap that makes it big. On the other hand, you get this real examination of things that are important to the common man - things like video games and how we'd do if we were trapped inside one. Japan has a trapped-in-an-MMO genre, with the majority of works produced being really really bad wish fulfillment OPMC garbage, but with a very few that actually get to the heart of why we like MMOs so much and why we like summoned-to-another-world stories so much.

I wouldn't say the Kindle store is that similar. For a web serial to make it big it has to be really well-liked while it's being made available for free, and the Kindle store doesn't have a good system for that. It doesn't let the community bring editing suggestions while a work is in production. Wattpad is something similar, but I'll believe it when I see a Wattpad serial adapted to the screen.

>>7892161
Community "editing" is a terrible idea.

>>7892175
It is far superior to no editing.

This is democracy we are talking about. It is ugly and what it makes is ugly. We need not judge its works by the standards of aristocratic literature.

>>7892694
There's no place for democracy in the artistic process. Artistic endeavors must necessarily be dictatorial in nature.

>>7892718
Low-brow fiction has always been democratic. You stop swapping tales when your friends stop liking them, you don't become a successful skald if nobody feeds you for your songs. No noble sponsor ordered the creation of Beowulf.

I'm not arguing that low-brow fiction hasn't also been terrible, but it's what commoners do. Fan fiction and Wattpad are the new fireside tales. I believe that, just as Renaissance authors adapted oral tales into immortal classics, aristocratic authors of today can find inspiration from whatever cream rises to the top of that chaos.