Its time for new paradigms to evolve. Its only a hazy vision in my head, but imagine something structured like open source software. Imagine if you will an Internet army of critics. If you want to join the golden horde you can. You first take a survey regarding the genres of books you wish to review and then have to rate a number of well known books in that genre. Anyone looking for a recommendation (customers) would set up their own profile by rating the same core set of books. They would be matched by a set of volunteer critics whose lists of ratings most closely matched theirs. The users of the service could then, after the fact, rate those same critics whose reviews enticed them into buying the book. If the critic said “Zapper” was a ten star book and the customer/reader thought it was a flop they could send in that information to indicate their displeasure (or delight) with the review, and the stats on satisfaction would be available on line. The critics would be entitled to a certain percentage of the books sales in general, not in regards to any book they reviewed, but as to the total aggregate sales of all the authors who submitted their work to the organization. And if the customer’s ratings of the critic fell too long–goodbye sucker.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be practical, but it might create a new sort of gatekeeper who is not the master but merely a doorman who can be fired for incompetence or arrogance.