Just ask a reader, duh!

     Do you remember the 80's movie "Gung Ho"? It starred Michael Keaton who works for an auto company that closes it's doors down resulting in people losing their jobs.  He goes to Japan to beg an auto company to move to their community and keep the factory going.  What happens is the clash of very different cultures as they struggle to produce... cars.  The American workers and the Japanese business men have very different ideas on how to bring the public....cars.  Get the picture? The end product is the car but never once is the public car buyer even mentioned.  The car buyers are forgotten, and only the publishers and writers (oops) factory owners and workers are mentioned.
    So, is it important to even bring up the reader as part of the equation of book sales in today's conversation of indie/traditional book sales? Hell yes! How are the authors/publishers getting money from their books? Duh! Us, the readers. Yes, it is all about us. Us, us us.
     The books listed first in our kindle or nook book store are at the top of the sales list in the genre we are interested in. We are looking at the cover, the story, the price.  Probably in that order. Today's indie books have some awesome covers and chances are they are at the top of the heap because other readers have deemed them to be good reading. Authors simply don't have enough friends and family to push them up that far in the rankings. Indie authors reach out to each other and as they savor some success they are able to buy better covers and reach out to the reader by their websites, facebook and/or twitter. So what if they promote their books this way. (you mean traditional publishers don't use media to promote their books? Rigggght.)  Indie writers share information and are perhaps the friendliest people I have met on line.
  That doesn't mean I don't buy a traditional pubbed book on my kindle or nook (yes I have both!).   I have my favorite pubbed authors, but it hurts a little to pay almost 3 to 4 times the price of an indie book.  I love to read but in the past how much so was limited on my meager book allowance.  Eating and paying bills seemed to rise to the top of the heap in priority over my TBR list. I have read more books in the last 2 years than I have in the prior 10. Isn't this good for publishing world?  A reader who buys more books than ever?
   It also doesn't mean I only buy e-books.  I have been known to buy the hardcover of a book I  have already on my e-reader when I adore the story. I have been known to drive my husband crazy when I drive an hour to the closest indie book store to buy a hardcover book I have already read and get it signed by the author.  (BTW, it was Wool by Hugh Howey. Amber, do you have a treatment for us crazed fans?)
     So writers, give us readers a bit of credit.  Bridge the culture gap.  If you are traditionally published, continue to do so.  If I like your writing, I will buy your book.  But don't diss the indie author.  I like their writing also.  And I will buy their books.
    I do think traditional pubbed authors need to get off their high horse and stop trashing the indie wave  (Mr. Green).  It kind of makes them look like whiners You all are a lot more alike than different.  It's just a culture. The readers are the same.

And so writers: in the words of the Japanese CEO Soh Yananura, "I like you. You make me laugh."