Shrinking Hierarchy

Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman

“There have always been some things that only require one person to produce, such as poems or drawings. A novel can be, usually is, written by one person. Until recently getting it into people’s hands required persuading a publisher to publish it and stores to carry it but that is no longer the case, thanks to the rise of self-publishing and the existence of the Amazon marketplace. You can even do it without Amazon by putting your novel up on the web as a serial, as some authors do, paid for by donations. An illustrated novel used to require the cooperation of an illustrator but may no longer, thanks to the development of AI art. I have not tried doing it but my guess, from the AI art I have seen, is that a novelist with no artistic ability could now, with patience and ingenuity, produce adequate illustrations. A newspaper columnist could be, often was, a freelance, but he had to persuade newspapers to carry him. Substack will take anyone.” (01/30/25)

https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/shrinking-hierarchy