I think that WILL happen — I think it’s inevitable, as good writers realize that it can be a better deal than traditional publishing because there’s such a huge cost saving on cutting down, pulping, flattening and slapping ink on all those trees, and they can control both editorial and marketing (see my explanation why I’m doing it after publishing traditionally here — http://www.chevenga.com/faq.html, it’s down a ways.)

Our job is to make it happen sooner rather than later. Part of that is by making sure our writing is of good quality, part is by doing good quality reviews, establishing online fiction awards and other forms of recognition, etc., and part is promoting original online fiction as a whole. Things can happen very fast on the Internet, so I have hope.

I’ve signed one book onto WFC as Chris knows and will soon follow with another. (www.chevenga.com for those who are curious.)

Just do please let us know if you aren’t the author, so we don’t credit it to you.

I find WFG to be a much more useful resource, it seems far more balanced to me, and there’s a lot to be said simply about the consistency of having things reviewed by the same editors. I can learn which editors share my taste and which don’t, and choose which stories to look at accordingly. But I can also balance the editorial opinion with what regular members have said.

Since WFG has managed to keep even a stodgy person like me, who resists newfangled shtuff like blooks (I gotta say the term “blook” makes me shudder in horror) poking around for stuff to read, I’d have to say that it makes a far better resource than PU. I don’t really see any reason to beat a dead horse when there’s a perfectly good new horse standing right there in the coral XP

On a related note, I haven’t got a conclusive reply from Erin yet. Am wondering what to do while we’re waiting.

If someone else wants to take over PU, more power to them.

On a personal note, I don’t really have the desire to attempt to keep PU up or anything along those lines. I already think WFG improved upon AE’s idea and made the community better for it.

What’s happening with PU is the natural — I’m trying to phrase this in a way that isn’t trite, but I can’t (perhaps I’m too tired). The fact is, there’s a time for everything and it’s the nature of things to live and die.

That being said, having AE behind something like that gives it a huge amount of clout among those who read her stuff. That’s the big hurdle that anything else that tries to do the same thing faces.

I think that the loss of PU would be a fairly large blow to the web fiction community. PU really has its foot in the door in a way that I’m not sure any other review site does. Eventually, if it doesn’t stick around, some other site will crop up to fulfill that role – but we would be set back.

Hopefully, somebody takes of PU, or starts something similar very soon that all the folks currently there can jump on.

I should spend some more time checking out WFG.