[Taylor514ce]

I was involved for many years in writing, editing, and publishing poetry. That market is primarily controlled by academia, and there is even less financial reward/incentive for writing poetry than fiction today. I was "successful", in that my work won awards, was published, etc. and I was even sought out by a textbook publisher, who published some of my poems in school textbooks and poster series. I continue to write, but no longer submit my work for publication.

I was a sysop on the pre-internet CompuServe for LitForum and Poetry Workshop. Anyone could upload poetry, and anyone could critique it. There were a lot of people who couldn't take the critiques, took immense offense, "all poetry is beautiful; how dare you judge me", and left never to reappear. Thankfully. (We quickly took to referring to certain work as "another 'Love's Anguished Shards' poem", abbreviated LAS. Earmarking a post LAS saved a great deal of time.)

More or less by popular acclaim, certain members took on the role of Editors, others provided considerable education in meter, rhyme, and form. Well-known poets were attracted and enthusiastically joined.

However, and this is my point, no one ever got published as a result of the LitForum experience. We had many published poets and authors (I remember particularly Diana Gabaldon was there, frequently uploading works-in-progress. Judson Jerome...Barry Fogden, who occasionally went by the charming anagram "Barfy Donger"), but they were already published poets and authors regardless of LitForum.

So, while I think the idea of an online community of independent authors and readers is a worthy idea, in my similar experience it will not lead to commercial success for an author.