Meanwhile, back in the present, the twenty first century, Internet Authors are finding the whole process has grown increasingly irrelevant. Since they don't have to ever print out anything, and can move their computer files directly to a print-on-demand publisher like Lulu.com on-line, there is no question of doing anything else. They sit down on their home computers, create the stories and novels, and upload them electronically. The only time the words are ever printed out is when the final publication is produced and the book is mailed to your home. In that all-encompassing process, there is no need for any middlemen, even if they are attractive secretaries, and no need for other methods ' apart from the keyboard. Some time soon that may go as well, in which case Voice Recognition software will remove another stage in the process. Then, all you do is talk to your computer, and after some juggling around on the computer screen, a book will arrive on your doormat.

The production process, therefore, has become meaningless to the Internet Author. The only step you have to take is to get the ideas out of your head and onto a computer screen. Everything else follows. Of course, that doesn't guarantee quality. Back to the 1980s, and one Traditional Publisher complained that 'young men' had read about the success of Jeffrey Archer in their magazines and seen pictures of him sitting with his secretaries in front of a word processor. 'I've got one of those', they said to themselves, 'It doesn't look so hard', and they would sit down and try and churn out a 'best seller', just like Jeffrey did. They failed. After several attempts, they might have had to admit that they weren't the 'born story teller' that Lord Archer always claims to be. Maybe that's a good thing. Computers and the internet make writing and publishing easier, which means, as time goes on, it will also be easier to find the good writers, the imaginative authors, and the ones with something to say. Others may drop by the wayside, but it will be because they are unreadable, it won't be because the technology has diverted them into thinking that having a quill pen in your hand can make you an immortal poet.

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