A pixilated video of the webinar host appeared in the upper left corner at exactly six o’clock. Janine had never had this woman in any of her other webinars and wondered if she knew what she was in for. In fact, Janine realized that none of her webinar teachers taught repeat classes, even though the classes were mostly organized around a similar theme: some way of making money.

“Welcome, writers,” said the woman. “My name is Catherine Powell, and I will be your host and your instructor tonight. Would you please all give me the thumbs-up if you can hear me?”

Janine clicked the thumbs-up button, then waited for all of the other students to do the same. She could see their screen names in a little box next to an icon that read “OK,” “thumbs up,” “?” or “Slow down.” Janine had registered herself as JanineG, but many of her classmates had pen names for their internet activity, so it was hard to tell. She thought she recognized Manfred, who appeared to be logged in as WilhelminaD52.

Manfred is that you? she messaged WilheminaD52.

Sure is, sweetheart, he messaged back.

Janine experienced a little passed-note thrill, and typed: This part takes so LONG.

You’d think our comrades would know how to give the thumbs-up by now.

Haha, Janine typed. It reminds me of my life skills classes.

They are seriously in need of some life skills. Have you been on Facebook lately?

Not in a few hours. Why?

You might want to check, when this is done.

“Okay!” said Catherine Powell. “It looks like almost half of you have found the thumbs-up button, so I’m going to move on. Okay! Those of you having private messages, let’s turn our attention to the webinar.”

Busted, wrote Manfred, but Janine was too obedient to type the question she wanted to ask Manfred—why did she need to check Facebook? Had something else happened? Maybe, she thought, people had seen her poem. But that was vain and unlikely—it was probably more outrage over the newspaper article.

“Let’s begin with a survey. How many of you regularly read e-books, that is, books on Kindles, Nooks, iPads, or other e-reading devices? Notice that on the next screen, there’s a button to click if you regularly use these devices.”

Catherine waved an arrow insistently over the survey question. Janine clicked “no, I do not regularly read e-books yet.” Ten question mark icons appeared next to people’s names, and three people requested that Catherine Powell slow down.

“Okay, just type your questions on the little screen below, and I will try to answer them,” said Catherine Powell.

Does reading on your phone count?

What do you mean by regularly? Every day? Every week?

What Is An E-reader?

CaN it be a regular book or just a book that was published electroniclly?

What are the royalties like for ebooks?

Can you publish an ebook yourself?