I don't think he's talking about "gatekeepers" per se, I think he's talking about the publishing model being incomprehensible if you're in it.

I think the old publishing model is dying. self-publishing is routing around it.

As a reader, it is sort of amazing. I've been reading more than I ever have before in my life.

If I like a book, I can read the next in the series, and there's a good chance there are 8 other books in the series. When I was younger, scifi novels would rarely have follow-on books, and if they did, maybe max 3 at that.

The hard one for me is continuing a book after I see a typo.