Who cares that you don’t have the right credentials?
Or that you break rules. Or that you break them because you didn’t know they were rules in the first place.
Or that you’re afraid.
Who cares that you stay up late, or get up early because you’re not happy with something you wrote and you need to fix it?
Who cares that it’s the wrong word and the right one won’t come?
Or that you hate semicolons as much as I do?
You’re the one behind the curtain.
You are in the magic business, friend. And only you knows how to push that idea along.
There is no license for writers. You chose this.
No one is ever going to give you permission to do this.
And you’re often going to find more reasons to stop than to go on.
No one cares if it’s luck or talent that saves you.
No one ever says “I used to be a writer” and means it. You’re in this for life.
The readers and the money are rewards. And good ones at that.
But there is only one thing keeping score in this business of stringing together letters and words.
There’s just the work.
About the author:Patrick Gant is a writer & speaker. He owns thinkit creative, a company that specializes in writing and editing digital content for the web. Follow him on twitter here.
CreativeBoost gives you valuable updates about unlocking the power of writing that sells. It's free. Join today.
This post started out as a quick Q&A piece designed to answer the question: what is micropublishing and why should I care about it?
The trouble began when I tried to define it much the way that I might have about seven years ago.
If this were 2005, I’d have said the following…
In many ways, micropublishing works just like conventional publishing business, except it’s a much smaller company doing the printing, done in reduced volume, for a much smaller market.
I can’t entirely stand by that definition anymore. There are a few reasons for that.
To understand micropublishing today, you still have to describe it relative to publishing. So let’s start there.
What does publishing mean anymore, anyway?
Our conventional understanding of what constitutes “publishing” has changed. It had to.
Every industry offers a product or service that solves a problem.
Publishing as an industry no longer solves the problems that it used to.
It used to be the only game in town for choosing a select bunch of good ideas from many bad ones and getting those ideas (usually the good ones) in the hands of many people. Printing was the large-scale industrial process it used to achieve that.
There was a marketing component, too. But the jury’s still out on how effective they’ve been in that department for the past decade or so.
Two big disrupters
None of this is meant to denigrate the work of industry publishers today. There are some very smart people in that business who do (and will continue to do) great work. They just happen to be on the receiving end of not one but two of the biggest disruptive ideas in the history of human communication.
First, the rise of online media. Publishing is a moveable idea now. It’s not just about books and newspapers anymore. In fact, on the scale of who is engaged in the act of publishing today, it has very little to do with books and newspapers anymore.
We are all publishers now. Not just in the sense that we each can publish our ideas on the web though blogs and social media. Publishing now is an act: not an industry.
Ebooks are the second disrupter. And it’s astonishing how quickly they’re hollowing out a centuries-old industry. Granted, they’re not a substitute for the feel of a paper book in your hands. But they solve a very important problem.
Ebooks also have some unique advantages in terms of pricing. I’ll come back to that in an upcoming post.
Back to my problem with micropublishing
So where does that leave micropublishing? Good question. I still don’t really know how to define it anymore.
It’s still mostly a printing enterprise. It’s still all about being able to print in limited volumes if you want.
The trouble starts when you look at who is doing the printing and the size of the market for the work that’s done there.
When you can write a book or an annual report, design it, upload it to Amazon, distribute it electronically to readers worldwide, plus order and ship a select number of print versions of your book—however many or however few you want—it suggests that micropublishing is an idea that’s suddenly a lot more fluid than it used to be.
There’s not much that’s micro about it. If anything, it’s starting to look a lot more like just-in-time printing.
Publishing has become an idea that has outgrown the industry that created it. Micropublishing—whatever that’s supposed to mean anymore—has helped that along and has also been reshaped in the process.
What’s left and what’s ahead
Distribution is the last freestanding wall controlled by traditional publishing. It’s going to get really interesting when it falls soon.
It’s what’s holding back many entrepreneurs, professional speakers, authors, poets from leaving the traditional publishing model, because they’re looking to sell hard-copy books in high volumes and up until now, publishers still corner that market.
Even prolific fiction writers—people like Dean Wesley Smith, for example—who’ve embraced the new way of doing things make a point of noting that this is still new…even for them. “Traditional publishing,” says Smith, “was still the only real choice just two short years ago.”
So what does all this mean for anyone with an idea in search of an audience? (That includes you).
It means that it’s time to go beyond what publishing used to be and start planning based on what it is now and where it’s going to be.
“It’s time to go beyond what publishing used to be and start planning based on what it is now and where it’s going to be.”
Click to tweet this.
The blockbuster sellers in hard copy aren’t going to go away. But we’re going to be seeing a lot more long-tail projects get into the hands of a lot more people…and in far less time than before. Much of that is going to hinge on micropublishing and self-published ebooks.
It’s time to get serious about embracing Amazon’s publishing model and ebooks as a viable platform for mass audiences.
You’re a publisher now. You can do this.
About the author:Patrick Gant is a writer & speaker. He owns thinkit creative, a company that specializes in writing and editing digital content for the web. Follow him on twitter here.
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Anyone can be a writer, it’s true. But sometimes—whether you’re writing an article, webcopy, a direct marketing piece or a book—you’re going to get stuck and it can seem as if no amount of rewriting is going to fix your copy.
Don’t wait for that sinking feeling to set in.
Here’s the first thing you must do.
Keep writing.
Don’t give in to that feeling that says you need to walk away.
Giving in is easy. It’s what many people do.
There are cases where you need to shift gears for a bit (and I’ll come back to that). But unless you keep working at your craft and your ideas, you’re going to lose any momentum you started with.
There’s an even bigger danger.
Unless you’re in the deadlines business like I am, there is also a good chance that if you put that writing assignment away, you might not come back to it. Ever.
Stop with the Point-A-to-Point-B thinking. Be more abstract.
Ideas and the business of writing them down is not a linear practice. In fact, it’s rare to be struck by a fully formed thought that’s ready to share. That’s just the low-hanging fruit, my friends. The rest takes time to ripen. And often it’s going to take you in directions that may surprise you as much as your reader.
Here are a few methods I use when I get stuck. You can use any of these, too.
The tangential method
Find a good quote about the subject you are writing about. Don’t just slap that quote into your copy.
The writer’s first job is to ask questions. Who is the speaker behind the quote? What did he or she accomplish? Are there any articles posted online about this individual? Book reviews? Praise? Criticism? A few minutes of satisfied curiosity can provide you with an entirely new angle on what you’re writing about.
The switching gears method
I said earlier that you have to keep on writing when you’re stuck. But that doesn’t mean you have to keep bashing your head against the wall and wishing for a different result. Some ideas need to simmer. In the meantime, write something else.
Creativity is a weird visitor. It often walks into your house, puts its feet up on the sofa, grabs pen and paper and tells you it’s working on something. Let it do its job. Just don’t let it switch on the TV.
Switching gears means that you might not be working on the thing you started on in the first place, but you’re still producing. Practice and discipline. These are your best teachers.
The backstory method
This one applies to fiction writing. Having trouble making a character believable? Invent a backstory and write it down. Need help asking the right questions? Go to one of those free online dating sites and look at the questions they ask of people when creating a dating profile. Fill it in. The answers you’re being asked are meant to help other people decide if you’re likeable and compatible. So this is a good resource if you’re stumped.
With a fact-filled backstory (okay, made up facts, but I’m sure you get where I’m going with this), you have new ways to approach your subject and write convincingly. After all, you totally know this guy now.
The undoing method
Some ideas are just not ready for primetime. Some are just crappy ideas. A good way to test yours is to turn them inside out. Play devil’s advocate. Write a short piece arguing the opposing point of view.
One of my business lines is speechwriting. I sometimes use this method when I’m finding the copy isn’t as persuasive as my standards demand. Undo your arguments. You’ll quickly reveal the cut line that separates the facts you know are true from the rest of the points that you simply feel are true.
About the author:Patrick Gant is a writer & speaker. He owns thinkit creative, a company that specializes in writing and editing digital content for the web. Follow him on twitter here.
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As a business professional, a published book can be one of the most powerful tools in your personal marketing arsenal. Not only does it deliver value to your readers by sharing what you know on a subject, you directly benefit, too.
It can elevate your profile as an authority on the topic you write about. It can reveal your passion. And if your book is really well-written, it also gives people a sense of what you’re like as a person, both on a personal and professional level.
About the author:Patrick Gant is a writer & speaker. He owns thinkit creative, a company that specializes in writing and editing digital content for the web. Follow him on twitter here.
CreativeBoost gives you valuable updates about unlocking the power of writing that sells. It's free. Join today.
The number of ebooks published in 2012 is going to exceed a million, easily. That’s more than 8 times as many books as were published to the public a year ago.
I’ve been talking about this trend for quite some time now. If you’re in the audience business (and you are), the self-publishing gold rush is on.
Ebooks are now one of the most powerful, disruptive forces in publishing and marketing today.
About the author:Patrick Gant is a writer & speaker. He owns thinkit creative, a company that specializes in writing and editing digital content for the web. Follow him on twitter here.
CreativeBoost gives you valuable updates about unlocking the power of writing that sells. It's free. Join today.
About two weeks ago, my friend and noted web developer Jonathan Snook decided to write an ebook.
It went on sale yesterday.
His work over these past two weeks is the outcome of a series of notes he’d been collecting for a few months. The result is an ebook that shows developers how they can use cascading style sheets to better manage large, complex websites.
The technical term for this is SMACSS. But this post isn’t to talk about what that does (besides, his book explains it so well that even a guy like me can begin to understand it).
Rather, I want to share with you three valuable lessons that anyone in the ideas business—and as a reader of this blog, that means you—can learn from and apply, based on Jonathan’s example.
There is no time-to-market anymore.
We live in an idea-powered economy. The market for smart new ways of doing things—in this case, developers who build big websites—isn’t the kind that’s going to wait around for months to get a paper-based book in their hands.
For the chop-down-a-tree publishing industry, the time-to-market (fancy talk for the length of time between creating a product and it being available for sale) is typically measured in months. Sometimes even longer.
That’s an agonizing amount of time to wait and it’s a major sore point with writers and thought leaders today. As Scott Stratten–best-selling author of Unmarketing–tweeted over the weekend on this very subject: “publishing needs to decide if they’re in the information biz or the paper biz.”
Opting for self-publishing your ebook erases that delay. It eliminates everything that used to stand between you and the people you want to influence. It puts ideas in people’s heads. And it does so nearly as fast as you can come up with ideas.
That’s why the ebook is one of the most dangerous, disruptive inventions to have ever emerged in human history.
Let me repeat that…
“The ebook is one of the most dangerous, disruptive inventions to have ever emerged in human history.” Click to tweet this.
No wonder publishers (among others) are freaking out.
Build on permission.
Jonathan understood that it’s not enough to just write an ebook, upload it to Amazon, Kobo or the iBookstore and sit back and wait for readers to come to you. Ideas travel fastest in groups.
As I am fond of saying, people are busy. No matter who you are, the public’s attention for what you have to say is scarce. “Permission,” says Seth Godin, “is still the most important and valuable asset of the web (and of publishing).” You need credibility to build an audience. And that’s an ongoing task.
In case of my friend Jonathan, he already has a legion of fans and followers. The way we sells his book and his ideas shows you how he’s done that.
In addition to offering his newest product for download either directly from his site or via Amazon, he’s also included a membership option, featuring some pretty great added benefits for a small fee.
“We’re all marketers now.”
That’s a quote from a 2011 McKinsey Quarterly report. And it’s spot-on. You are no longer separate from your message. Today, who you are, what you do, what you offer, what you solve and how you solve things are all part of your product and your offer.
Among the last of the perceived benefits of the publishing industry was that they would look after all these things for you. They would package your product, edit it, and use a bunch of methods to try and draw attention to your product.
Even in those areas, you are now better served by doing things your way. No one knows your idea and your audience better than you.
It’s not hard to find experts who can help you look after all the things you need to build the best possible experience for your readers. For instance, Jonathan hired a fantastic illustrator who developed a great looking character mascot for his cover. Need an editor? It’s not hard to find a great one who is easy to work with. Same goes for graphic design, translation…and so on.
This is a great time to be a writer. If you’re in the idea business, you already are one (and there are pros who can help you refine that skill, too. Don’t know one? Call me. I can help.)
Learn from the examples of others like Jonathan and you’ll see: in this digital age, with this dangerous invention, it’s never been easier to share your ideas and build a market with more people in less time.
About the author:Patrick Gant is a writer & speaker. He owns thinkit creative, a company that specializes in writing and editing digital content for the web. Follow him on twitter here.
CreativeBoost gives you valuable updates about unlocking the power of writing that sells. It's free. Join today.
On the heels of a lot of promising signs for ebook publishing comes bad news from the hard-copy side of the business as Key Porter Books suspends operations.
I wasn’t at all pleased to see how they broke news to writer Mark Bourrie that his upcoming book, Fog of War, was being put, in their words, “on hold status.”
Granted, there’s no doubt that management at Key Porter had plenty to agonize over leading up to this, but I can’t think of a worse way to break bad news to someone than than via email.
About the author:Patrick Gant is a writer & speaker. He owns thinkit creative, a company that specializes in writing and editing digital content for the web. Follow him on twitter here.
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Lulu, one of my favourite micropublishers, has wisely embraced Apple’s brand-new iBookstore (think iTunes for books).
The outcome: Apple gets more content, Lulu gains a distributor and authors gain access to a highly lucrative market of readers who buy a lot stuff online, including books. Everyone wins.
Lulu’s timing could not be better for this. Have a look at the kinds of sales that ebooks are generating these days. According to the International Digital Publishing (IDP) Forum, ebooks generated some $165.8 million in sales in 2009…more than triple what was reported in 2008 ($53.5 million) and more than five times the record for 2007 ($31.5 million).
Data: International Digital Publishing Forum
This is an niche industry that has barely…just barely begun to hit its stride.
Results for 2010 are already described by the IDP as being off the charts…some $60 million in January and February alone, putting it on track to score some $300 million in sales by the time the year is through.
About the author:Patrick Gant is a writer & speaker. He owns thinkit creative, a company that specializes in writing and editing digital content for the web. Follow him on twitter here.
CreativeBoost gives you valuable updates about unlocking the power of writing that sells. It's free. Join today.
About the author: Patrick Gant is a writer & speaker. He owns thinkit creative, a company that specializes in writing and editing digital content for the web. Follow him on twitter here.
