Discussions

Internet vs Print

Posted by JessicaMaybury • 7/25/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: writing

And then and again there's always that question of whether the internet is a valid publishing medium. I know why I'm doing it, but will other people? Here's some reasons why:

The internet functions as an alternate reality, and as such makes a cutting-edge, precient medium

Although I'm not getting paid, if I do eventually get paid then it doesn't really matter so long as there's the money

Is there an element of cutting your teeth online? I know I wouldn't feel I was good enough to send stuff off to 'actual' magazines (depending on what side of the camp you're on)

I would never have realised that I have a knack for flash fiction if I hadn't done this.

Of course there'll always be naysayers who declare that it doesn't count if you're not in print. Hm, says I, right. I think that getting the work out there is all that matters, and love the idea of people all over the world reading my stuff.

User Comments

7/25/09

timethief

oops! My comment has turned into a blog post.
I removed it and will publish it now.

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7/25/09

greencurmudgeon

I spent much of my business career trying to help traditional print journals to make the transition to online; it's very difficult, however the thinking is that eventually most things will be online as opposed to print.

So in answer to your question, is online a valid print medium: well, publishing companies seem to think so!

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7/25/09

nothingprofound

I already commented on this on your blog so I hate to repeat myself. Suffice it to say, that the actual quality of a piece of writing is not determined by whether it appears on the internet or in print.

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7/25/09

Agit8r

I know that when I'm researching, I use both books and web. Books have a subject index which is great. Internet has search engines. Some things are easier to find on one or the other, but never both equally.

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7/25/09

Epicharis

I think the essential difference between the internet and print is that (provided it isn't self-published) the print work has been read and approved by other people before going to print. That implies some level of quality control, though these days it seems that any old tripe gets published as long as it's marketable...so that's where it all falls to pieces...

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7/25/09

JessicaMaybury

This is all great stuff, guys! I agree with you Epicharis; I think that the standards of both editing and publishing as a whole have gone way south.

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