The Significance of Personal Publishing

Charles — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:08:33 +0000

The ability to self publish on the internet, where nobody controls anybody, may very well be one of the greatest milestones of the early 21st century. Anybody with access to a computer and the web can exert their full intellectual and emotional facilities to whomever chooses to listen. I must say this has got to be one of the truest freedoms of expression to date. Even with all of the marketing, the hype and even the money, blogging remains a natural extension of one’s persona. The writer must now be mindful of their audience, their readers and their market as they attempt to deliver a consistent message of value and authenticity. This is no easy task for me, personally, because blogging under Wordful has so far been an intellectual struggle. I’m constantly at odds with connecting my deep, evolving thoughts to a mainstream, monetizable audience. In other words, writing as a marketer marketing as a writer does not come easy to me. And so this turmoil puts me face to face with myself, asking, “am I just a big idea person who has trouble with follow-thru and consistency?” It’s a question that I’m glad to be facing so early on. I started off wanting Wordful to be a how-to blog on web publishing, editing and writing. Now I’m realizing it’s more than that because I’m more than that. I’ve simply got more important things to say beyond the basics. The challenge here is to translate my deepest convictions into casual, likeable blog. It’s kind of like asking if Barack Obama can engage his deepest convictions to appeal to an entire country of real people with real hopes and dreams and problems. Having vision is great but it does neither of us any good to simply live on grand ideas, right? So can I do it and make some money along the way? We shall see.

The Significance of Personal Publishing is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.

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The Significance of Personal Publishing