Writers know they picked a tough profession. Far from being glamorous and exciting, writing on most days can be tough, disappointing, and low-paying. If you're a writer and that describes your current situation--or maybe you're a writer who's on the brink of abandoning your whole writing career--you need to know that something big has happened.

Maybe a better way to put it is that the old business model has been replaced by a newer business model for those writers who seek it.

In the old model, writers sold their product to publishers, who assumed all of the risk of publishing. Old-fashioned publishing was never cheap. Publishers paid to print and distribute books, magazines, and newspapers. Besides collecting quarters for newspapers, publishers sold advertising space. It was a risky enterprise but some did well and a few even got rich.

That business model is still going strong. The trouble is that it does not pay writers very well. It really can't. The publisher lays out too much cash and takes on too much risk to pay writers what they perhaps ought to earn.

But the new model-and not that many writers have discovered it yet-involves writers stepping outside their comfort zones and becoming publishers of sorts. The term is content provider. This means they now write, but instead of selling the content to a publisher, they self-publish.

Self-publishing is not what it used to be. Not so long ago, even reputable self-publishing houses were considered "vanity presses" and an imprint from one of their companies could damage a book's reputation. Today, just about anybody with enough money to get a "doing-business-as" (DBA) license from city can be a full-fledged publisher.

But more important than just setting up a business, writers can market their end products.

Want to write a how to book for growing roses? Instead of ink and paper, you can produce an online book (sometimes call an e-book) and sell it directly.

Online products like this are an interesting phenomenon. The more narrow and specific your topic the better. Growing roses in zone 9 (the extreme South and Gulf Coast) is an even better e-book title. Growing white climbing roses in zone 9 is better still.

The reason it's a good business is that production costs are very low and very specialized information can fetch a premium price online.

But what if you'd rather write a lot of short articles about a broad topic, say like a magazine writer? Great! Online magazines exist although they don't call themselves magazines. They're just websites and the articles are content. They often sell advertising or their own products to subsidize themselves. An example of such an online magazine is http://www.thePerfume-Reporter.com. It was started by a writer.

Writers are often puzzled by this turn of events. How do writers make money if they have to give away their writing? What's changed is the business model. Smart writers are no longer selling content, they're publishing. They're selling e-books, online courses, or other information (the whole industry is called "information products"). Or they're selling advertising by writing content-dense sites that appeal to specific (often limited) audiences.

But unlike publishers of yesteryear, a writer today does not need a bankroll to set up a publishing empire. A computer with Internet access, some software, and some basic skills (which admittedly may require a couple of courses) and a home-based writer can now become a publisher.

Are there advantages to the writer? After all, many writers live to write. First of all, a writer who publishes online is no longer working with an editor. This means the writer can write what he or she most wants to write about. There is no editor to change your headlines or publisher who wants to gut your story.

Writers are free to explore and write about the things that most appeal to them. Old-fashioned publishing had to be broad, because it just didn't pay to invest the amount of money publishers had to spend to produce niche publications. The Internet turns that paradigm on its head. Now it's better to think narrow.

Today, writers can find readers and income writing about building kites, managing a dental practice, or planning a cruise-ship wedding. Just about anything that people might spend money on is grist for the Internet.

With a wealth of publishing opportunities and virtually no financial barrier to entry, many online entrepreneurs find themselves playing in many niche markets.

However, many writers are still working on the old model and frequently end up selling their writing skills to this new breed of publisher. For instance, websites for freelancers or job boards seeking writers frequently try to lure writers to write e-books or articles for content websites. And, like old-fashioned publishers, these new non-writer Internet publishers are not known for their largesse to writers.

Being a writer is a huge advantage for Internet businesses. These cyber-publishers devour content and producing high-quality material is a bottle-neck for even most robust online businesses. A competent and capable writer with a lot of interests can easily leap the fence and become a publisher.

If it's done correctly (and it can take a while the business down pat-this is not necessarily easy stuff), writers can devote most of their time to doing what they love, namely writing, and earn a good living, too.

Ain't the Internet great?


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Jo Ann LeQuang is a full-time working writer based in Texas, and who thinks the Internet is the greatest thing for writers since the copyright law. To learn more about how writers can benefit from online publishing, click on http://www.workingonlinewriter.com .