Print or electronic? Which would you choose?

When a friend recently had a poem accepted for publication he was given the option of having it appear in either the print or electronic version of the journal.  He picked the electronic, on the theory that he would reach a wider audience.  Which would you pick?

-- sdh

Comments

[Sharanya]

Definitely electronic. Wider audience, long-term archiving, higher chances of random stumbling upon, easier to share with/ recommend to many people at a time.

[Anne Babson]

I find that the choice is increasingly a false one. Ten years ago, print was the gold standard, and electronic publications were fly-by-night affairs to some degree. These days, thanks to scholarly databases and POD, that which is or was in print only is now electronically available; print on Demand makes the electronic hard-copy.

I've just been anthologized in a forthcoming e-anthology in England, after having recently been anthologized in a hard-copy book there; I'm not sure that one is better or more prestigious than the other, as both publications come from sister presses. I am not convinced that one audience is particularly different than the other, either.

The only thing that might make me see this differently is an EMP that jettisons civilization back to the technology of the Victorian era; that would be the burning of our library of Alexandria. Let's pray it never happens, that the technology finds a viable back-up system that would obviate the threat.

[Didimenendez]

Why choose when most publications offer both? Well at least I do....

Thank you for your question.
Back to reading submissions.

Didi Menendez
http://www.poetsandartists.com
http://www.mipoesias.com

[steve@TouchySubjects]

One advantage that electronic publication might have is the ease that some piece you write gets a response. If a poem, or any other writing, appears on a well read forum, it's possible to get unlimited responses. Some give and take. Maybe even a fight about it.

You can carry on a dialogue.

It would be a special print medium if it were to offer anything comparable.

[Lucinda Miller]

It's a great question, harder to answer than ever before.

[Cindy Hochman]

I still prefer seeing my poems in print, although I have a lot of work in electronic journals and that's nice too. Hell, I say YES to anyone who wants my words. But, I kind of still like print....