The necessary credentials.

In a now probably rather infamous essay from 2002, Joseph Epstein veritably begged would be authors to think twice about trying to get their work published. With a healthy mix of elitism and wit he suggested that, despite an enviable egalitarianism that leads us to believe that each of us has a story of one sort or another to tell, most of us really shouldn't be trying to convert that story into a book.

At first glance it would seem that Epstein corroborates Andrew Keen's critique that the populist nature of the internet is gnawing away at our ability to find true cultural treasures, that with so much being posted/published, it's impossible to find the trees for the forest. But it appears that Epstein is at least as critical toward the publishing industry as he is toward the internet:

I wonder if the reason so many people think they can write a book is that so many third-rate books are published nowadays that, at least viewed from the middle distance, it makes writing a book look fairly easy.

But it appears that back in 2002 Epstein wasn't concerned with the internet. Neither it, nor the web, nor from what I can find, any other online-related term, gets mentioned at all.

Go to: A cyberspace hero is something to be, or
Go to: Why don't you write a book?