I just read a blog post from Eoin Purcell where he refers to the saying 'people don't know you're a dog online' to make a point. It occurred to me that with google chat, skype, social networking and all, that that saying just isn't true anymore.  The internet is not about being anonymous. The digital space has changed dramatically since the time of that the cartoon was drawn, that Purcell mentions: (New Yorker 1993) 

Of course the point he was making was about how backlist competes with frontlist because now no one knows that it is backlist. It just is. And while I agree that digital distribution has changed the game for frontlist and backlist I still think that pubdate is extremely relevant and that it will be pubdate that influences purchases. Pubdate is what creates backlist and media is going to still push/review new over old. So while backlist is no longer constrained by material space it is still very much constrained by it's actual original existence and the way dialogue happens around books. (Oh plus, try to get a movie or t.v. show made from your work -and get on Oprah!)