A Golden Age of Entrepreneurial Writers?

With the sea changes in writing and publishing of all types, you have to wonder if this is indeed a new golden age of entrepreneurial writers.

Apart from the rise (in number and status) of self-published fiction authors (which Karla Brady notes in her blog post called "Self Publishing is ... IN?"), there's also a new place for the entrepreneur in journalism. This is evident, not only due to new and unusual college journalism programs that focus on the business aspects of writing, but also the fact that these days buying a newspaper or radio station is seen as akin to investing in a biotech company.

But one of the most telling indicators is the amazing success of fiction authors like Seth Harwood and Karla Brady (and, BTW, I love the name of Karla's old blog :)), both of whom have landed publishing contracts after self-publishing. And, of course, the amazing success story of Joe Konrath who as of Sept 21, 2010, sold 103,864 ebooks!

This isn't to say that all self-published authors will land publishing contracts (or even want to). This isn't to say that all self-published authors can repeat Joe Konrath's absolutely stunning ebook sales success.

This is only to say that writers (of whatever sort) have more viable options now for getting their work out than ever.

Writers, in fact, have more power than ever. Time to exercise it.