"..without publishers or bloodsucking middlemen taking most of the money..."
Obviously publishers and bloodsucking middlemen are more or less synonymous in this sentence. I'm on the board of a publishing company and have also worked as an agent (a true bloodsucker).
Two things:
1. In a practical sense it is easy to see publishers and agents as bloodsucking middlemen. Once you've actually worked with lots of creators and artists what you learn is that there'a very good reason for the middlemen. Artists do not generally wish to have too much to be doing with their public - especially not in a commercial sense. In the end of the day Publishers and Agents give writers the thing they really need most: faith. It sounds like corny bull - hell it is corny bull...but it's also incredibly important.
2. I remember reading a great article about Fintech startups trying to "cut out the middleman" and it had a great observation in it: the middleman is there because the two parties don't trust each other - not because they're stupid. I always think of that when I hear people trying this approach.
#2 is soo spot on. As somewhat of a professional middleman (I'm an engineering manager) I find quite often I've maximized the value I can provide when I've negotiated away this distrust and effectively put myself out of a job. It sounds a bit silly if you say it that way, but connecting people who wouldn't have otherwise connected and getting them to play nice with one another when they may not have otherwise done so is really quite rewarding and definitely quite necessary.
I grew up with a mother who ran a bookshop and a one-woman publishing house. Publishers cop a lot of flack that they don't deserve, particularly if they're also distributors. From editing advice to negotiating with printers to storing your shit to packing it up for you and shipping it off, they take care of the 'boring business stuff' while the creators get to go off and be creative. Artist wants to fuck off for a month? Cool. Order fulfillment wants to fuck off for a month? Not cool.
Here's a great podcast on "The Middleman Economy". It expands on your points and brings up a few more use cases for value-added middlemen that you haven't listed here.
Aren't promotion and partnerships/deals also part of the process? I see that what Blackbox does accomplishes some of the scale factors — but it's all about the logistical layer and not really about the service layer (as you mentioned).
Obviously publishers and bloodsucking middlemen are more or less synonymous in this sentence. I'm on the board of a publishing company and have also worked as an agent (a true bloodsucker).
Two things:
1. In a practical sense it is easy to see publishers and agents as bloodsucking middlemen. Once you've actually worked with lots of creators and artists what you learn is that there'a very good reason for the middlemen. Artists do not generally wish to have too much to be doing with their public - especially not in a commercial sense. In the end of the day Publishers and Agents give writers the thing they really need most: faith. It sounds like corny bull - hell it is corny bull...but it's also incredibly important.
2. I remember reading a great article about Fintech startups trying to "cut out the middleman" and it had a great observation in it: the middleman is there because the two parties don't trust each other - not because they're stupid. I always think of that when I hear people trying this approach.