Somehow I find this proposition surprising and even shocking because it seems to assume that the best authors are young enough to have started their careers wit

Somehow I find this proposition surprising and even shocking because it seems to assume that the best authors are young enough to have started their careers within the past 15-20 years when the internet has actually been relevant enough that one could build an audience there first. I mean, maybe it's true, and I'm just stuck reading books by the old farts.