We writers should be delirious over the new opportunities opening up for us.  The steep, narrow, winding path to a book deal has almost overnight become a multi-lane superhighway.  Writers can nowadays afford to go almost anywhere with their work.  But we do need roadmaps.  Chris Brogan has delivered a broad-brush landscape of our unfolding world at the just-completed Tools of Change for Publishing conference in New York City.  And, magically, it’s already available in online video from his website.

Brogan is one of a growing list of social media gurus.  At the TOC conference, he was speaking to a roomful of book people — writers, publishers, distributors, bloggers and such.  His workshop was very long; it was very rambling in nature.  But I found the video provided one of the thought-provoking mornings I’ve had in years.

You may have noticed that my blog posts have veered somewhat away from the tools of writing and more toward the new avenues to distribute our writing.  We writers simply must pay attention to these changes.  And we must begin to digest the mass of information that tells us how to travel this new super-highway.

No writer can now complain about the difficulty of getting one’s words into distribution.  On the other hand, the challenge of getting our words noticed — to gain attention in an emerging “attention economy” — is huge.  And no one will do the spadework for us.  We must ourselves learn how to gather our audience.

Brogan points to many strategies and tactics writers can follow.  I myself am amazed that I learned about this video within hours of its release.  How did that happen?  Because I am getting increasingly plugged in to the new channels of communication.  I sniffed a hint of something new I wanted to investigate.  I spend an hour following a string of links from one thing to another.  And I’ve ended up with a number of incredible discoveries, all from the meandering series of unpredictable links spreading out in front of me.

That power that the internet provides is available to all of us.  We simply must start planting seeds and tending to the sprouts as they emerge and water the trees as they grow.  It takes time.  But as a writer, I’m enjoying tending to this garden of opportunity that grows in productivity every day.

The Chris Brogan video will be available for a few days in our sidebar — just click and watch.  And it will be included in my collection of VIDEO FOR WRITERS for future reference.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  Do you believe that we are indeed in a major revolution that affects writers directly?  If so, is the effect good or bad?  Does it open new doors for you — or do they annoy you?

POST SCRIPT:  I’ve just discovered that many other presentations from the Tools of Change for Publishing conference are available online.  Click the “Episode Archive” button at the top right to see a list of all videos available.  Now that should keep you busy all weekend!

POST POST SCRIPT:  When checking my VIDEO FOR WRITERS collection at Vodpod about an hour ago, I discovered that this collection has already been viewed over 1350 times.  On one day recently, over 30 visitors viewed a video that day.  I’m of course pleased to see VIDEO FOR WRITERS is developing an audience of its own.

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