Many thanks for the compliment. Do you write? Either fiction or nonfiction?
What I’m learning (repeatedly) is that the biggest hurdle to achieving a readership is the ability to market. If to the legacy industry, you must market like crazy to agents. If self-publishing, well . . . to the world. My next project as a writer is to learn how to do that better.
I read some great advice from Taleb in The Black Swan. To the effect that one of the industries where you can create your own positive Black Swan is in publishing, and your opportunities are increased only if you get your writing out there.
One of my first steps is to help other writers, as many as I can, to advance their work. And, yes, there’s a self-serving interest, but that is how the bulk of civilization works—people helping each other. Not, as we so often see in the stories posted here, one segment of society tearing down others to elevate themselves.
Again, thanks for the commentary. I’m waiting to see if Laz comes back to seek more advice on structuring his story, which has a terrific potential.
Best, Jim
Self-publishing has changed quite a bit in that time. When I started my business, I collected industry information via paper literature -- yes, that's right -- paper, as in brochures and so-called white papers I collected via the U.S. mail because this was before the internet and PDF documents.
When the internet took off, the companies selling into special marketplaces began creating lots of deep content to promote themselves. And Google has also leveraged written expertise and analysis to make many billions of dollars selling advertising to the same people I sold to. It's an interesting story.
But in the last several years I've also gotten great satisfaction writing vanities on FR.
Interesting to hear you like Nassim Taleb. I wrote a vanity about him here.
Note this. Perhaps this can be a shared role?