| The World Wide Web offers individual writers new possibilities for producing and distributing fiction. This dissertation begins with an in-depth look at who these writers are, what they are doing and the advantages and disadvantages the Web has compared to traditional publishing venues. The common goals of these writers and the various ties which bind them suggests that a community of writers has developed on the Web. No community exists in isolation, however, so the dissertation also looks at some of the other forces at work in society which may have an effect on this community. Transnational entertainment conglomerates, for instance, are attempting to change the underlying structure of the technology in order to reap potentially great profits from it; their efforts may result in diminishing the ability of individual writers to use the Web to effectively distribute their work. Governments, to use another example, can affect the way individuals use the medium by enacting laws restricting certain categories of content online or developing copyright laws which favour the interests of large entertainment producing corporations. Finally, writers publishing on the Web may have a disintermediating effect on traditional print publishing, with ramifications for, among others, publishing houses and bookstores. What emerges in this dissertation is a portrait of the complex web of relationships between individual and institutional stakeholders in this developing technology. |
