Becoming a Curator of Content
Blogs live and die on content, and I admit mine has been pretty dead. The challenge is that I like to write quality posts about what I read or what’s happening, but life just won’t give me the four hours it takes me to grind out a blog. I know that sounds like a lot of time for six-hundred words, but I like to research useful links and proofread to death. So instead of writing, I think, I plan, and the page stays empty while my job, my three kids, and my crumbling house eat my life. Today’s disaster? Our bedroom door dropped out of the doorframe. No, I kid you not, I opened the door this morning and the top hinge ripped out of the wall. My wife tried to close it to get dressed and the bottom hinge gave way.
Enough of life getting in the way. Something must change!
I’ve been reading that I can also be a curator of content on my blog, not just the author of the content. I love the title curator, because it sounds like perhaps I might get a extra role in the movie Night at the Museum. I read a lot of blogs that are curated content, meaning the author gives his astute (hopefully) observations in one line and links to the blog he’s commenting about that contains relevant content.
Relevant content? In the case of my blog, I’ve sometimes written about my books for my fans, but I know many writers follow me because they’re fascinated with e-books and self-publishing, and they’re curious about this not-so-new fad, which has become part of the publishing landscape since the rise of authors like Hugh Howey.
Who is Hugh you ask? He’s the latest self-publishing success, the guy who proved that Amanda Hocking and John Locke may have been the first million Kindle best sellers, but they won’t be the last. In fact, he has proved that there are authors out there making a tidy sum, even if they aren’t best sellers.
That’s what’s on today’s curated content menu:
This report takes a look at the Amazon best seller lists and discovers that self-published genre authors are selling way more than the industry reports. Remember, industry reports are about their sales and don’t include self-published novels. Better yet, many self-published authors are making good mid-list money for their novels.
It’s really encouraging to see that self-published authors are actually able to pay some bills with their writing. More authors than ever have been able to quit their day jobs and write full time.
Direct access to readers has made the publishing world more profitable for a broad spectrum of authors than at any time in history.
Enjoy the report. It’s so amazing that I’m going to repost it next week.