What Do We Want From the Bookish Internet? | Tor.com

Writers, magazines, readers, other creators all existed before Twitter and will exist again, but to make an extremely obvious statement: The world is different now. Everyone who wants to share their work is competing with a million zillion things-not just other books, other writers, but everything else that's grabbing for our attention, from memes to dance routines to weird stuff on YouTube to funny cat videos to [insert any internet timesuck here]. Even if you just look at books, any reader who wants to find their next great read is paddling in an overwhelming sea of options, with fewer and fewer resources to help them make informed choices. Papers shrink, magazines shrink, and arts coverage gets cut first. Without reliable income, critics and writers have to earn money somehow; their best work (understandably!) goes into paywalled newsletters.