Anybody Can Be A Creator

Before the age of the Internet, authors needed a publisher. Musicians needed a record label, and filmmakers needed a producer.

Without the blessings and money of these gatekeepers, no artist could reach a broad audience.

Today there's Kindle Direct Publishing and other platforms for writers, SoundCloud and CD Baby for musicians, and YouTube for video producers.

Today, anyone can make anything accessible to anyone. It's a revolution in the balance of power in the entertainment industry that many still don't fully understand.

But before you can distribute a book, a song or a film, the work must first be produced.

Even the production of a paperback book, a music album, or a film is now possible for anyone thanks to the Internet and advanced software.

Print On Demand service providers ensure that authors no longer have to invest many thousands of dollars in advance if they want to offer paperbacks. Online tools help with book typesetting and all other design issues.

Musicians today have access to very cheap or even free digital audio workstations that do what a few years ago would have required a studio with equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Successful YouTubers work with smartphone cameras or inexpensive video cameras and use cheap professional-level software to create special effects and other professional editing tasks.

Are you still consuming or already producing?

The world today is a consumer world. Everyone wants to read books and articles, listen to music, and watch movies. Millions of television programs, publishers, websites, film production companies, radio stations, and other platforms urgently need new content to offer their audience.

At the same time, it has never been so easy as today to become a producer and provider yourself. But the vast majority of people do not seize this opportunity. Instead of producing, we just consume.

I'm not saying that everyone can write a book worth reading or that everyone can write and produce a song that people like to listen to. But I am saying that those of us who have talent in any of these areas should seize their opportunity and become producers today rather than tomorrow.

You play the guitar, and you can sing? Then download the free DAW Cakewalk and learn how to record your music professionally. Then master the song for little money from an online service and publish it through an aggregator on Spotify, Amazon Music, and other streaming services.

If you've written a book that's been in your drawer for years, sign up with Kindle Direct Publishing and publish it as an e-book or paperback.

If you like to film with your video camera, open a YouTube channel, and show your work to the world.

Sure, the book, song, and videos won't be masterpieces, to begin with. But if you don't show your work to anyone, you can't know how good or bad it is. You only learn through feedback, and publishing is the fastest way to get feedback.

As a writer, I have learned most things, not from books about writing, but from the feedback of my audience. I publish a book every two months and a blog article almost every day. So I get feedback all the time and can learn every day.

If you publish less often, you can learn less often. If you don't publish at all, you don't learn anything.

If you consume, you take something and give money for it. Whoever produces, gives away a product and receives money for it.

At which end of the money stream do you want to be? Don't just be a consumer; be a creator. The time for that has never been better than today.