There is so much about the way the current technological tsunami is affecting the publishing industry that is hopeful for writers – and also a fair bit that is scary.

One worrying example is how digital publishing models seem increasingly geared towards not paying writers. The Punch, for example, does not pay its writers. Nor does the enormous Huffington Post (which, perhaps ironically, now has a Books section). The Punch and HuffPo may look and act like multi-user blogs, but they are money-making websites. Sadly, it’s only the writers who aren’t making any money. Hand-in-hand with the notion (expectation?) that online content should be free is the idea that if content is free then writers don’t need paid – which is frankly ridiculous. (Interestingly, there was a recent article by Michelle Haimoff that puts forward a model for how HuffPo writers could be paid for their work.)

Sites like these cite ‘exposure’ and ‘audience building’ as enticements for writers to submit content for them. To a degree, these are enticements… for a time. Sometimes there are great benefits to writing for free – to gain exposure, for example, or to ‘build profile’ (a term that is liberally bandied about in the publishing biz). To start getting publishing credits, if you’re an emerging. Or because you support whatever small (cashless, usually) press that is putting the work out*. Or to put forward a theory or idea you’ve been working on to get feedback. Or to build a particular audience (I have written free at aduki the magazine for years, and have found this to be very beneficial). Etc. But it’s very easy to burn out when you are doing a lot of writing for free on top of, y’know, actually working to earn a crust. (Aside: Maybe rich people who can afford not to work will come to dominate the writing industry. Who knows?)

I worry that even as worthwhile channels to be published are opening up online, writers are at the same time losing increasing opportunities for payment. And I worry because the way our publishing structures are set up, authors have little power when it comes to reaching their audience (be it books, magazines, websites or online opinion pages, publishers control the distribution methods). And there is also little opportunity for writers to take control of their mode of distribution (i.e. with a blog) and also charge for their work… because people expect online content to be free. And so we go in circles.

Now, I’m not suggesting that writers band together and oust publishers; nor that all publishers are evil and try to give writers a bad deal. Not at all. Publishers, both online and off, are absolutely essential for reasons that are too varied and numerous to go into here. Rather, the direction I’m heading in here is to talk about writers seeking out online, self-publishing opportunities that result in payment, which would be a nice income stream additional to the paid writing we do for publishers, the unpaid writing we do for publishers, and the unpaid writing we do for ourselves (like blogs).

With a rise in independent publishing, accessible book production tools (including ebooks) and easy website development (blogging), the stigma of self-publishing is lessening, especially online. But where writers can reasonably expect (or more likely, hope) to make money from self-publishing a printed book, there is little-to-no expectation that writers will make money from self-publishing online. Again, we return to the idea that online content should be free.

But blogging has moved on from its early days of personal, livejournal-style diary/life blogging and has morphed into something much more sophisticated (in many cases, anyway). And elegant, functional self-publishing platforms like WordPress are worlds away from the limiting blogspot-style blogs of old. So we writers have the tools, but we’re not trying to make money off them. Why?

Over the next few days I’m going to explore this concept a bit further. Don’t worry, this is not a precursor to me suddenly slapping a $10 entry fee onto this blog. I’m just interested in the logistics of how making money from self-publishing online might be possible, what the stumbling blocks are to making it work, and why more writers aren’t trying it.

Bonus reading material: Agent Nathan Bransford asks Will authors of the future need publishers?. He thinks yes, but envisages a scenario where authors and publishers are more equal partners in the relationship. To me, this means there will be an expectation that authors will help drive their own careers (and incomes). I think this is a good thing.

*Admission: Vignette Press does not pay writers – no one makes money at my place except the editor and designer, who get a small stipend. I’m currently experimenting with new models to turn this around.

*Photo by penguincakes.