Let’s assume there exists an expert who wishes to make a living by getting his or her information or ideas out to the world.
And if there is only the Real World our expert uses, I think, to a first approximation, the non-fiction print-publishing industry route to do that – agent, publisher, advance, all that, to produce a physical object which contains words and illustrations, printed on paper. Other stuff would follow on from that in a sequence, all protected by law.
Let’s imagine that the material would end up, via print publishing, as 300 pages with a few illustrations.
In fact, it seems to me, as a rough approximation, that many people are trying to construct a model for the digital publishing industry using this model with the phrase “printed on paper” being replaced with “which appear on a screen.” That seems to be the immediate future of non-fiction publishing – “digital (non-fiction) publishing.”
But let’s step back. The goal is to make a living by getting the expert’s information or ideas out to the world.
It seems to me that with the digital world now spinning next to the Real World there can be another way of doing it.
The first part of this will seem straightforward.
Now the expert can be a Digital Inhabitant, have a free or cheap blog and thus unlimited space for not just text and it’s souped up accessories – like hypertext – but audio and video as well as well as a way to be part of the living, breathing network that makes up the digital world.
And can start writing – the three hundred pages turn out to be 300 posts of a blog, written over, say two years, drawing on all other resources available on the Web and the author’s initial and growing expertise.
But it’s not, simply, it seems to me now, taking information and producing a free digital book, closed, in a vacuum. This kind of “publishing” is different because the author is part of a giving and receiving network – giving and receiving from other contributors to the field, indeed across the digital world, people who comment and refer and link, people who receive with gratitude the free information provided by the expert and more that I can’t even think of.
I would use a term other than “publishing” if I could think of one.
But the core - the writing - remains free. And, it is true, the expert (or gradually-becoming-expert, actually) has to have a way of sustaining him or herself during the start-up ime.
The Interwebs provide a free distribution system, because the “reader” pays for them.
But here’s the rub. Now, the expert, as a Digital Inhabitant in an the expert-centric universe, can do so much more.
Because now, from the the blog – the center of a web – and on the commercial side, new products and services begin to spin-off – consulting, conference speaking, both in the Real World and the digital, print books, ebooks, podcasts, audio books, advertising on the blog, perhaps using the STI or freemium model for some of the work and so on and more things to be invented or I do not yet know about.
But the core remains free. And the expert can decide at any moment what remains free and what to charge for and why and at what price. But the giving just rolls on. Because the giving is what it’s all about.
So the real question is this: can this expert Digital Inhabitant meet the goal by doing this? Make a living? By starting with giving away – and continuing to give away – digital world writing and building all kinds of products and services around that?
And if so, it could be described as another future of non-fiction publishing. With the audience those with broadband access to the Web who didn’t mind giving up printed books.
If you know the answer is no, then please let me know and then ignore this post.
I certainly don’t know the answer.
However, is there an example now we could look at? A possible bellwether? Well, we could look at The Simple Dollar, written by Trent Hamm. In January of 2008, he had this to say in response to questions by Alan Johnson in an interview on The Rating Blog:
Here’s a question which most of my readers are probably interested in: how much are you currently earning online (a rough estimate, of course)?
High four figures a month, combining all of my activities.
How many hours do you work per day?
Three, on average.
I hope I do not misrepresent Mr. Hamm but that seems pretty reasonable to me, before expenses. His website currently has 57,000 readers via RSS and an Alexa ranking of 27,312. I don’t know what his earnings today per month are – I don’t feel comfortable asking, frankly.
And perhaps none of this works. And like I said, it’s not even “digital publishing.” It’s just how a Digital Inhabitant expert could make a living with a personal space in the digital world.
[UPDATE 05/16/09]
1. I had to cross that stuff out because it didn’t make sense in the context of how I was describing this new form of publishing – for example I forgot about video blogging.
2. Although I couldn’t come up with a new term for this, I did come up with a new adjective. I call it “freemix” publishing, which includes the idea of free, mix (of people and stuff) and publishing, as well as a hint of “remix.” Why I am glad about that last I discuss in the next post.
