What determines which ideas reach us increasingly shapes what we know, what we discuss, and whose voices enter the public conversation. In publishing, that power has shifted dramatically. The barriers to producing a book have fallen, yet the challenge of getting anyone to notice it has become formidable.
I have spent more than two decades in publishing, and I have watched the industry’s gatekeeper change. There was a time when an author needed a publisher to get a book produced and distributed at scale. Publishers decided which manuscripts received investment, distribution and access to bookstores.
That barrier has fallen considerably. Today, an individual can write a manuscript, upload it to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), and have a book available to readers without securing a traditional publishing contract. I teach students how to publish a book through KDP in 10 steps, and I encourage people who have something valuable to share and an existing community to consider self-publishing.
The technology has opened a door that once required institutional permission. Yet opening the door does not guarantee that anyone walks through it. The scale of today’s publishing environment illustrates the problem.
According to Bowker data reported by Publishers Weekly, more than 4 million ISBN-registered (International Standard Book Number) titles were published in the United States in 2025. More than 3.5 million were self-published, a 38.7 percent increase from the previous year. The sheer volume changes the central question.
Publishing a book is increasingly accessible. Getting a book discovered is increasingly difficult. We have not eliminated gatekeepers.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
