We're all publishers now

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Whether you're Pearson or Oxford University Press, a management consultant or a project manager, a blogger or someone "with a book in them", these days you're a publisher.

The Internet has put us all in charge of making our own words available to the public.

Unfortunately, most of us aren't very good at it.

If you own, run or manage a business, you have to establish its online presence. You have to write about it and describe it, tweet about it and blog about it. You have to establish a tone, which may be formal, relaxed, friendly, funny or serious. You have to pitch your message at your readers.

If you are young, puritan-minded, entrepreneurial or American, you may see yourself as 'mybrand' and feel that you have to establish your personal brand on- and off-line. If you hate that sort of talk, you probably still have to update your cv occasionally.

If you're trying to establish a business or sell anything, you have to publish in multiple channels: e-articles, e-newsletters, e-zines.

And yet, all this can be in vain - will be in vain - if nobody reads it. 78% of the words that appear on English-language websites will only ever be read by a maximum of five sets of human eyes. 83% of the words that appear on English-language blogs will only ever be read by a maximum of two sets of human eyes.*

More time and energy is expended on publishing than ever before - and to less effect than ever before.

Whether you use Twitter, Scribd, Lulu, a blog, an e-journal or a good old-fashioned book to get your words out, you're a writer. Today, all writers are publishers. And all publishers face the same challenge eventually:

how to get your words read by as many (of the right) people as possible.

Of course, along the way, there are little challenges like:
  • how to write and edit
  • how to format a page
  • how to pick a medium (paper or electronic, journal or book, blog or e-book, etc)
  • how to find readers
  • whether and how to find a 'proper' publisher 
With that in mind, if you want help with words (getting them written or getting them read) Publishers Direct might be able to help.

* Statistics taken from the journal 'Scriptologia Ephemerata', Vol. 7, 2009, p.318