From what I'm reading, the traditional publishing industry is in trouble because of Amazon. Given the oligopoly of book publishing giving writers few if no options and putting out a homogenized result (which are the hallmarks of an oligopoly, or market in which there very few sellers), it's a hard time if one wants to be traditionally published. The oligopoly takes few risks; writers are often disposed to take risks in writing.
This is where Amazon/Kindle Direct Publishing comes in. Amazon is a free market of publishing. They don't look at content; they assume you've done the work with copy editors, developmental editors, and the like.
The good news is that the process is easy for writers to self-publish their work almost seamlessly, they can involve themselves in marketing as little or as much as they'd like (understanding that sales will suffer if they don't market) and their work is out there for people to read.
The bad news is that many writers haven't done that work, while others have. Thus the only way a reader can find good quality works is to look at the ratings, and even then there are ways to game the system (although most authors are under an honor system not to do so).
In a way, Amazon is the Wild West of publishing, but there are opportunities to be had.
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