That word 'essentially' is vague to the point of unfalsifiability - whatever I could say against that, you could say, "Yeah, but essentially.." - the word sounds objective but means 'whatever I think is the most important/central/defining feature'.
The artists/musicians/writers/etc who are good at getting work for themselves has always been very different from those who are good at the art. And the people at the top of whatever charts (pop music etc) would be the first to admit they're not the greatest.
I think you're primarily appalled at the user of the word "authors" to only refer to those people. Which I can understand, but in the context of the point being made I'd argue that's mostly just semantics.
I'm appalled at the use of the word 'authors' to only refer to those people? um. I didn't realize anyone used 'authors' only meaning that, so, no, it wasn't that. Or maybe I don't know what they were talking about, who knows.
Maybe it's mainly a different of perspective; mine is a musician/artist/writer perspective, I feel like I'm talking to people in marketing. (Who else would describe everything turning to internet marketing as a party, even metaphorically..)
[disclosure: musician/artist who's 100% failed at self-marketing]
I think you've misunderstood - "late to the party" is a common English phrase, where late is the more important word, not so much party. Imagine arriving when everyone else has already gone home. The meaning here is that promoting your work online was profitable a decade ago, but authors & musicians are only discovering that now, when it has stopped being profitable.
People here agree with you - we want quality music and quality art! But we also need to hear about it & be inspired enough to even try listening to it. A musician or author has to learn "marketing" to be able to build an audience (unless they just want to make music for themselves, and that's fine too).
Don't think of it as "marketing", think of it as trying to find & make 1,000 friends. A lot of the music I buy is because the singer is actually a friend or someone I could email with a question. Marketing can also be writing about how you make your music, or being creative in how you distribute it (like Nine Inch Nails mailing their CDs out in bags of dirt that were stuck in customs, that gets people talking about it).
All people are saying here is that writing is important (it's the product being sold!), but if a writer wants to be profitable, finding an audience who will buy it now takes much more work & effort & time than the writing itself. And that's why authors are now marketers first, writers second. A bad song that people have heard about is more likely to get bought than an excellent song no one has heard.
(And for what it's worth, it's the same for indie software developers - I only spend a small part of my time making the software, most of my time is spent on customer support & talking to customers, accounting & tax compliance, administration and marketing.)
For better (anyone can get started from their bedroom with just a laptop and an internet connection) and worse (less time spent on actual writing, likely no correlation between being a good marketer and a good artist), isn’t that true of all creative endeavors nowadays?