Postscript

So you are a writer, and someone tells you they’ve devised a way for your work to reach hundreds—no, make that thousands—of new readers over a much wider area than the one in which your work is currently distributed. The quality of reader also will likely be higher, not only because your writing will be promoted to readers interested in your specific form or genre of writing. Okay, you admit you are getting excited: Where is this utopia of readers anxiously awaiting your finely crafted work? Oh, they are online, not on paper.

What is the seductive quality of paper that makes every other medium seem less attractive? Despite the fact that most of us use the Internet at least weekly, if not daily, and that we all read stuff online (even if we tell others it is only the headlines), somehow when it comes to being published, only print on paper will do.

Upon scrutiny, the intricate arguments we construct to defend our print addiction are a bit ridiculous. First...