Publishing

Online publishers are special. They are different because they are always depending on technology to get their message across the Web. An online publisher faces risks unimaginable in the offline world: a simple server crush, a virus or other such mishaps, could delete important work forever.

And inexperienced online self-publishers know how much this hurts. They’ve been there, they’ve tasted the bitter nectar of data loss, and those who had no backups felt the bitter nectar truly bitter!

Online publishers are special because they don’t need huge financial support to publish their work, but they do need to pay more then you could ever imagine to promote it: they need to invest time, passion, commitment and money.

Needless to say that what really makes online publishers special is the diversity of the published materials.

But one should probably tell you that “materials” doesn’t refer solely to texts and designs.

Online publishing encompasses everything you could think of!

Online you can publish text, photography, design, sound and video. There are affordable platforms for each idea you might have.

Some self-publishers use all the publishing channels they can find, others are satisfied with just a blog or a flickr account.

But the most amazing trend is video publishing. A simple search on Google video will reveal an amazing number of self made feature movies, animation movies, documentaries or silly personal videos.

Serious companies use this channel to promote their products and their brand. Free video advertising! Imagine the possibilities!

Less serious people use this channel to deliver messages of anger and hate. This shouldn’t happen online, but it looks like Google cannot control everything that is being published on their video search network.

If you search carefully you’ll even find feature movies that shouldn’t be published online: Saw, Silent Hill, Scary Movie and so on. These movies are not public domain, so the ones publishing them online are definitely breaking the law.

Google is also publishing books on its network. In an effort to make the most valuable old books available for search, Google scans old manuscripts and publishes them online in pdf format. These books belong to the public domain, but even this might be tricky as the legislation varies from country to country. So take care how you use the books you download from Google’s Book search channel.

In conclusion, there are basically no limits with regard to what you could publish online. But arm yourself with patience and time, because technology might play tricks on you, and the Web is evolving and growing more and more each day. You have strong competitors doing the same thing. And if you also want to win from what you publish you’ll need to fight against the numbers!