Keep Your Career Alive by Following the Reader

Today I had a wonderful conversation with Mr. Media (Bob Andelman) about Writer's Digest, the writing/publishing community, and the future ahead for writers. You can listen to the recording of the live show here.

While the conversation was initially sparked by this previous Mr. Media interview, we spent much our time discussing issues affecting writers.

Many newspaper/magazine/publishing outlets are disappearing—due to lack of advertising revenue, readership, and/or sales. So writers have to look for those places where readers are actually engaged and spending their money. That's where the money will follow for content creators, and I use that moniker very specifically. It's not about being a freelancer or journalist or author any more. Most often, it's about providing content, in a variety of forms, or adapting it for different audiences and purposes. Same goes for the future of publishing and media companies; they don't provide just a book or a magazine—they provide content or, you could say, a service wrapped around that content.

I like the idea of following the reader. There is a blog now called Follow the Reader that discusses some of these issues (in relation to book publishing), and you can follow Twitter conversations on the topic (#followreader).