Yesterday, I participated in a podcast hosted by Winning Edits founder Matt Gartland with Jane Friedman and Wayne Ude.
Often we were talking about MFA programs, but really we were talking about writing careers in general.
During the entire panel, I felt like I was struggling to articulate something but I couldn’t quite say it.
Then finally at the end of the panel, I got it.
And here it is.
We have to stop teaching writers how to be writers and start teaching them how to be publishers.
I have been doing this for over two years with writers and the results are exciting and are about to become amazing.
The question is not merely are you a writer first or a business-person first?
The question is, why aren’t you a publisher?
And if you are not a publisher yet, then why aren’t you working on it, at least?
Naturally, it takes a lot of skill acquisition to become a publisher. If you can’t write well, please don’t become a publisher unless you are publishing those who can write well.
But for authors, the choice seems clear to me. Become a publisher as soon as possible. You owe it to yourself, to your readers, and to your legacy.
And if you have doubts, please pick up my book, Permission Granted, 45 Reasons To Micro-publish, which will start rolling out in all digital formats next week.
Sorry it has taken so long to get into digital formats and thanks for your continued patience. There were some hiccups with the digital formatting that needed to be addressed.
