This is exactly what worries me about this online system. Back in the days, authors would send their works to be published directly, they would self-published or they would publish by parts in magazines. To actually get their work reviewed, critics would have to send in mail or to write a newspaper article. Now, how much impact that would have on the work of the writer was so variable.
Nowadays though, it is all about the subscribers. All about the number of people who follow your story, all about the marketing of your work. The value of your work is not based on more-or-less objective criteria like style, use of figures of speech, originality, etc. Now, it is based on how fluffly and fluttery you can make 15-year old girls feel and how you can get those 15-year olds to send you some internet love back to produce a consumerist, mainstream novel that will shell in some katching for a publisher.
I am scared about even thinking about that Million-dollar movie book. About her billions of views. Because, my short-lived academic career has shown me the dark side of education and the dumbing down of youth. You know what, not having a lot of online support nowadays might be a compliment, rather than an insult. But that doesn't help you. It makes you feel worse. It makes you wonder whether instead of selling your soul, you might maybe sell your arm just to get that one little push in the back, that one encouraging word.
The thing is, we are being drowned in mediocrity to the point where readers who matter, readers who would engage with your writing, your ideas and yourself, need to spend years swimming through generic sh*t to get to your work! That is why Web novel writing is a marathon. Stick in there. It is IMPOSSIBLE that there is not at least 100 people in this world that love your work, that feel it resonates with them. Wait for those people, I swear, they will make it worth the wait.
