The internet belongs to the writer…yah…that’s right…talking to you bud!

Okay admittedly scriptologists, programmers and web designers have a lot of sway online but finally the day of the humble, oft down-trodden writer has dawned!

No but seriously this post is all about the writer and the remarkably enormous power that they now wield, thanks to the internet. Unfortunately far too many writers are unaware of just how to capitalize on this enormous power at their disposal or that it even exists!

Who hasn’t heard the quote that “Content is King” (those dratted sexists…why not Queen?) but if you haven’t then it is high time that you did! Anyway if content truly is king then it can reign so long as the promotion of that content is the queen behind the throne! I mean let’s not beat about the bush and tell it like it is…great content is nothing if nobody knows about it or no one reads it!

Decentralization of Power

Which then, is where the internet comes into play. As a writer you now have an amazingly powerful tool to get your content where it needs to be…waltzing and mamboing spell-bindingly before the mesmerized eyeballs of your appreciative readers! But let me retrace a couple of steps back to the beginning and show you how we got to this point to thus better illustrate the awesome power that the internet has indeed put at your disposal.

Back in the day the publisher and agent wielded practically all the power and say-so over who became a well-known, popular author and who didn’t. This was all very well for those authors who made it into this elite group as they definitely benefited from the exclusivity factor. The exclusivity factor is a reference to the well-documented pheneomenon that the less there is of any given element in circulation, the greater its perceived value.

Anyway the very obvious problem with agents and publishers calling the shots was that it stole the essence and soul of the written word from the person who most deserved it (the author) and placed it in the hands of someone who was notoriously more concerned with the marketing side of things rather than the passion of the message. Thus if a writer hoped to get published they had to rewrite their labor-of-love (the book) the way the agent or publisher felt was right to thereby justify the expense of publishing it! Often that agent’s say-so or their vision of the writer’s book was driven by the same agent’s perception (misperception?) of public taste!

That, thankfully, has all changed, because the internet has put the power of publishing and marketing right where it belongs…in the hands of the author! That’s right! If you’re an author and you know how to market yourself then there is absolutely no reason for you to undergo horrific torture at the hands of an agent/publisher who doesn’t understand the concept of integrity or passion to the written word!

Mark Joyner, the well known marketer, writer, to mention but a few of the many titular hats he adorns, has written a very detailed, powerful, riveting and freely downloadable eBook entitled The Rise Of The Author…so there is no need for me to reinvent the wheel on this issue (truth be told I am just a lazy lout who is very thankful that I’m spared the pain of having to flesh out the details here because someone else has already done so in a most impressive and comprehensive manner).

One of my favorite online destinations (Sitepoint) has a revealing and inspiring article (well interview really) of author L. Lee Lowe who not only grasped the immense possibilities the internet has to offer to the lesser-known writer, she has gone the whole nine yards and fully embraced that power to get her writing out there smack center in front of her audience!

There are several other success stories of writers/bloggers who have crossed the digital divide to discover printed success and quite often movie deals! However that era could be fast coming to an end as the printed word becomes obsolete and with it the celebrity mystique of the author who boasts a print best-seller under their belt!

JUST HOW MUCH IS A WRITER CHEATED OUT OF REVENUE THROUGH TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING