Rise of the Publetariat

If you’re a self-published author or independent micro-press, these are very interesting times we’re living in as Amazon officially announced the new Kindle, major publishing companies are in meltdown mode, and the entire industry is scrambling to figure out what’s next.

While following the Tools of Change Conference on Twitter, I came across an intriguing tweet from @indieauthor:

#TOC Publetariat.com “outed” in Rise of Ebooks panel – can’t stuff the genie back in the bottle, so I’m going w/ it: www.publetariat.com

Cool name, and intrigued by the alleged “outing”, I clicked through to find a website that aims to fill what, to my knowledge, is a huge void in the market that SPAN, for whatever reason, hasn’t been able to, or seen fit to, address:

Publetariat is an online community and news hub built specifically for indie authors and small, independent imprints. Who needs another online writers’ community? If you’re an indie author or a small imprint, you do. There are plenty of online sites and communities for writers, but none of them serve all the specific wants and needs of indie authors and small imprints. When you’re an active indie on one of those other sites, it’s only a matter of time before more traditional-minded site members start belittling and dismissing you and your work because “you weren’t good enough to get a real publishing contract,” or some similar nonsense. This is a place where you will never again have to defend your choice to go indie, because everyone here has either done the same thing or supports your decision to do so.

I poked around, recognized a couple of names on the editorial staff, appreciated their mission, registered an account and, for the most part, like the template they’ve established and the direction they seem to be heading.

Ironically, it’s conceptually very similar to something I suggested last year to a previous employer, that they should launch as a brand extension, but couldn’t make the short-term ROI case for it based on advertising revenue. Of course, as has been noted several times at TOC this week, that’s the wrong business model for this kind of initiative, so it will be interesting to see how it evolves and whether or not it gets any attention from being “outed” at TOC.

Written by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez is the Chief Content Officer for LibraryPass, and former publisher & marketing director for Writer’s Digest. Previously, he was also project lead for the Panorama Project; director, content strategy & audience development for Library Journal & School Library Journal; and founding director of programming & business development for the original Digital Book World.