These days, nearly all writers already compose on a computer, most agents and editors rely on electronic copies of novels, and even print-only publications do nearly all of their editorial work electronically. Most significantly, writers seeking a market for their writing make that search via online resources. Older print references such as the Writers's Market have faded away, replaced by such sites as Poets & Writers' Guide to Literary Magazines and Journals. Even print-only journals now routinely screen submissions via online services such as Submittable -- so the chances are, even if you pick up a paper copy of a long-established journal such as the Sewanee Review or Ploughshares, every poem or story in it will have passed through a long electronic process before its final transmogrification into print.
The process is certainly more efficient -- no more "self-addressed, stamped, return envelopes" are required, and submission (and rejection) can take place in the blink of an eye. One recent pundit advised that, given this situation, and the increased volume of submissions it's generated, the only way to get accepted to to submit constantly; she recommended aiming for at least 100 rejections a year! Honestly, I think that's pretty poor advice for an aspiring writer, though rejections of course will be a feature of any such endeavor.
Happily, we have the tools -- some virtual, some "actual" -- to help cope with this. One that I've found useful is Duotrope; unike Submittable, it doesn't actually submit things for you, but it can give you a very good perspective on your choices. Duotrope tells you what percentage of submissions are accepted, as well as how many of the rejections sent are "form letter" or personal; it also has up-to-the-minute information on special contests, new editors, and publications which have just opened (or closed) to new submissions. For $5 a month, I consider it a relative bargain.
Another tool that can help is Scrivener, a word-processing software suite made specifically for creative writers; I tried it and didn't care for it, but I can see how it could be enormously useful to writers, not only simply in typing in a manuscript, but organizing research, workflow, and the inevitably numerous "notes to self" that a larger project entails. It costs $45.
One final bit of advice -- with writing, perhaps the world's most isolated profession, there's nothing like a good, small community. You may have one already; you may stumble into one; you may have gone looking and been discouraged. But don't despair! If, as so many of you have described, you've already shared your writing, on paper or online, with others, you have already begun to build one.
