‘Exclusively catering to audiences that already know and love non-linear work will land new media writing in an academic ghetto of experimentation. We cannot hide behind the notion that hypertext is experimental and therefore should always be on the edge always difficult to grasp.’

In Deena Larsen’s article ‘What Are We Asking For’ (2002) she highlights the need for new media writers to carefully consider a wide variety of readers when producing their works. Writers should not expect the reader to have an immediate love and appreciation of non-linear texts but rather they need to cultivate the reader’s appreciation of new media. It is possible to gain the ordinary readers appreciation of the hypertext novel if the writer is prepared to recognise the readers need for the work that they are reading to contain some form of structure as well as an accessible plot. If new media writers are prepared to produce and promote intermediate work which cater for the needs of the wider reading population while introducing facets of new media writing they will succeed in slowly introducing the ordinary reader to the new media world. It is of vital importance for the development of new media that readers are prepared to read and embrace new media texts both for pleasure and critical examination in the same way in which they currently embrace traditional linear works. If hypertext is not accepted in this way by a wide variety of readers rather than finding its place in the wider world of literature and art, writers of hypertext novels risk having their work permanently labelled as experimental writing. This will ultimately limit their audience to only a few really enthusiastic readers who share their knowledge of computer programming and appreciate the work for its complexity.