ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out to critically examine how the idea of what a book can be is changing in relation to the growth of digitally social communities and the writers and readers who congregate in these spaces, and to identify how this connectivity is altering the balance of power between the traditional industry and those who choose to write and share their work in a global village. By offering a succinct consideration of the role of social media, citizen authors, communities, gender, and genre, it can potentially help publishers determine if they need to alter the way they provide access to the industry in relation to the author-agent-publisher hierarchical gatekeeping system, in order to take advantage of new authors who are writing in digital communities and building a following there.
