Alright, times are definitely changing in the world of writing. I have been thinking about what Matt Harrison said about the New York Times and the how distribution of news and mass media is changing. Also, I liked Nyssa Silvester's comments and the link she gave to a website talking about the nature of e-book publishing and why it sometimes can cost more than a paperback version of the same book. I was browsing that website a little bit when I was struck with how much the publishing and writing world has evolved in this new digital age. It truly is the time of change and new models of business for writers.
Freelance writing seems to be the order of the day for most websites and even magazines lately. The old model of the traditional nine-to-five, cubicle-dwelling writer is quickly dying away. The nature of the beast is changing and writers find themselves more able to work from home and write for a large number of clients. This creates a great opportunity for many aspiring writers but also a lot of competition as thousands, if not millions, of writers are all seeking to sell their skills as freelancers. I think this is a great thing that will improve diversity in the field and create a new model that can be both beneficial for writers and their employers.
Related to the freelance writer, is the self-publisher. Self-publishing can be done through websites like Lulu or Amazon and can be done in paper or electronic format. This offers a huge opportunity for authors who are struggling with agents and publishers in order to get their texts out to the public. Whitman began publishing Leaves of Grass with his own money and was so successful that he was later picked up by someone. This has happened in recent years with authors like Richard Paul Evans when he published The Christmas Box on his own. I even have a friend working on publishing a graphic novel he has written and drawn through Lulu. It's quite an exciting world for writers right now. The digital world offers a great opportunity for self-publishing, again, improving an old model of business to fit in a new digital world.
I have marked a couple of sites in my Diigo account under the tag "writing." As I find more on the subject I will mark it in Diigo under this tag. Feel free to check out what I've seen by following the link or clicking on the writing tag in my Diigo stream in the column to the right.
Exciting time for writers indeed. Not only can you bypass the middle man of the publishers and directly access your audience through Amazon, but your profit ratio is going to be much more favorable than if you were getting a distribution from a publisher. The trick is building a fan-base and making sure you're doing some intensive marketing.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, it's sort of a scarier time for full-time editors. With self-publishing starting to emerge and major publishers starting to weaken, freelance editing might begin to overtake the career of in-house editing. Again, for the writer, this is good. They can have more control over whom to choose to edit their work and how much money to pay them.
But I'm an editor, so this is something to think about. Again, I think it comes down to learning to ride the wave of change instead of being wed to the old format.
That's an interesting point. I had never considered what the age of self-publishing and freelance writing would do to editors.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is going to be hard for editors to convince writers that they need to employ their services before publishing.
Self-publishers might not want to spend on an editor if they feel that they can do it well enough on their own.
This is definitely going to change the business model for editors as well. It's funny that most people never talk about the editor side of this equation. That's a good insight.