Everyday Canvas

Internet Publishing vs. the Earlier Publishing Practices

Blog City Prompt: In this time with the internet so easily accessible, how do you determine what is worth reading when it is so easy for people to publish whatever? What criteria is important to you when you read online articles, stories?

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Before the internet became the white-elephant sale of writing, we were at the mercy of the publishers. Granted, the works were better polished, but we had to contend with what was offered to us. It took me a long while to learn how to skip all those bimbo and VIP memoirs and muddle through the publications to find my niche as a reader, while I kept wondering how many writers’ good works were dumped into the slush piles in favor of the pockets of the publishers.

With this background in place, it is not too difficult for me to find what fits my taste and what to avoid in today’s markets. Now that the whole thing has become a jumble and most of the works are not as polished with the lack of good editors of yesteryear, I still think this trend is better than what we were force-fed earlier. At least, every writer gets an equal chance at being read.

The way I look at it, the ideal situation would be a combination of the ethics of good publishing practices plus the internet. I am hoping, against all odds, that at least the book publication will head in that direction sooner or later.

As to online reading versus printed matter, if anyone thinks the printed books and magazines and newspapers always gave the facts, besides the Brooklyn Bridge, I have a few other bridges to sell them. I know for certain that even the schoolbooks have had some wrong information in them, here and there.

On the other hand, some online articles on the internet are better than what we come across in the printed media. It doesn’t mean that whatever we read online is trustworthy, but then the printed stuff by the established publishers isn’t, either. This, of course, presents a serious difficulty for writers who need to do research, but then good writers can form their own opinions on what sounds true and what doesn’t.

Fact is, then or now, we readers can never be sure of anything, except our own good sense.