Is the Internet Bad for Writers?

Is the Internet Bad for Writers?

This question came to my mind during a recent attempt at writing a story. I am in the process of developing a series of short stories to form a collection that I can publish into a book. This is due to the fact that I have written a few stories that some people appear to like. Don't roll your eyes this isn't just friends and family patting my head and saying I am the next Rowling. They consist of various writers and aren't afraid to give criticism.

Some of these stories are over a decade old and yet I have never yet had them published. Over the past couple of years I have made a few comments to fellow authors regarding unfinished projects. I therefore felt it rather unfair and somewhat hypocritical to have work laid in my archives without attempting to do something about it. Therefore I procrastinate no longer. First step is naturally research.

Not confident that I will be able to get a publisher in this competitive world I have decided to have a go at self publishing. This is nothing to do with me being a control freak. As we well know Authors absolutely love being told what is wrong with their work and cannot wait to amend it, Ahem!

My style has been described as 'Quirky' and my target audience is whoever wants to read it. I have done some research and decided that I will give the On-line world of Internet publishing a go. This seems to answer my question in the negative. If the Internet gives such a great platform for writers new and old why would it be at all bad?

Pro-Internet Self Publishing

It is cheaper

It is more flexible

Less time consuming

Can be uploaded from anywhere

You are your own boss

Large international audience

Anti-Internet Self Publishing

It can be difficult to get exactly what you want

Nobody to proofread your work

Legal difficulties depending on where the site is registered

E-Books are not your own property

On the face of it seems that publishing on the net is the out and out winner. However this list doesn't take into the other more subjective factors such as

I DAMN WELL HATE THE INTERNET

Granted the technology has made life easier. In some cases far too easy. An idiot that can operate a computer can churn out a book, site or blog. There are an infinite of pages of imbecility. Opinions are considered facts and Wikipedia is the fountain of all knowledge. So many people now love to damage their eyes by reading off little electronic devices.

Where is the pleasure of the touch and smell of a real book? Will there ever be connoisseurs of On-line books saying I must download this one it has a different cover.

What narks me most and I consider to be the most detrimental to any writer these days is what the Internet does to my spelling. I find that after being subjected to years of reading ill spelt and ungrammatical tripe on the net my own ability to spell the simplest of words is appalling. No offence to our colonial cousins but having the spell-check keep defaulting to the wrong setting when writing is not exactly helpful. I am old fashioned. I like to spell Colour with a U.

I used to be reasonably confident in my ability to write a coherent sentence. Now I spend half my time cursing, especially the well known curse 'bloody spell-check where the hell is my proper dictionary?' It seems baffling to me that trying to correct a word that is underlined as misspelt using a spell-check can take 10 minutes where I can generally find the word I want in 5 (including going to fetch it and put the kettle on) using a traditional dictionary.

What do you think?