Online Publishing: A New Game

threebulbsI am writing a blog because it coincides with my current mission in life. This mission is to spread valuable knowledge with as many individuals as possible through some form of teaching.

The most effective channel for spreading information today is the internet. Nearly everyone in the first world has a connection to it, and most of us now carry devices in our pockets that allow us to connect just about anywhere. Information can be uploaded into this medium quickly, and there are nearly infinite possible ways to do so. If I am going to be spreading valuable knowledge this is the platform to do it on.

Books have served the world well for their run, but as people become less engrossed by ink on tree pulp and as attention spans shorten to less than a few seconds, publishing online in a way that can be easily ready or quickly skimmed for value in a necessity.

Creating a book, praying your publisher find it amusing, waiting for it to go through the publishing process, and finally holding the finished product n your hands can take years. Many authors and opinion leaders find success online entire decades before being picked up by one of the big three publishing houses.

Learning to get a book published the old fashioned way is a skill in and of itself. If someone has learned a valuable skill, perhaps spending years to master it, and wants to spread it, they will need to learn an entirely irrelevant set of skills just to get that book into their readers hands. This may be a deal breaker for them, keeping their valuable lessons locked inside their head where nobody else can hear them.

The internet has changed this. After learning a few simple key skills such as how to navigate WordPress, buy a URL, and configure hosting, a potential teacher can begin placing his content online for the world to see immediately. There are no more gatekeepers to keep a teacher from spreading knowledge to his students. There is no publisher who holds sway over the fate of an author simply because he doesn’t see the ‘market potential’ for his novel.

This is a new game with new rules. Lets play.