initially i felt the same way about this, as do many other people. i think it’s yet one more example of how technologies and their effects on how we live and work have moved faster than our ability to cope emotionally.

in my opinion we’re still pretty much ‘emotionally programmed’ to live the lifestyle of upright bipeds walking / hunting / gathering / working the land in small communities where everyone knows each others’ stories and shares the same context.

being isolated in cubicles, ‘producing’ things (whether on a screen or in a factory) goes against millions of years of evolution (both physical and emotional). we as humans have a natural aversion to thinking of ourselves as ‘products’, or even our ‘work’ as a product.

the issue however is that we live in postmodern world. if one denies or pretends that whatever he or she ‘produces’ isn’t simply ‘product’ (even if it’s art), then his or work is perpetuating, at least on some level, an illusion. it stems from a philosophy which is already outdated, not reflective of our current ‘times’.

This is not to say that you can still ’produce’ with soul (just look at rick rubin)…it’s just a matter of recognizing your ‘place’ as a writer / producer / whatever.

as gary noted above, a fundamental question is ‘who pays you?’ you can still be (and should be) hyperaware of the answer to this question without ‘losing your soul’.

personal branding is positive. it recognizes that people can only really ‘know’ the multifaceted ‘you’ in person, so when communication is mediated via computers, your ‘persona’ or ‘personal brand’ allows readers to better receive your main ‘message.’

on a different scale, branding is essentially the same as creating a narrator to tell a story.

from an editor’s point of view, i always appreciate when a writer is obviously aware of his/her brand, Matador’s brand, as well as his/her own personal ‘role’ as a contributor.

still, all of this said, there’s something effete and semi-ridiculous about the phrase ‘personal brand.’ it makes me think of someone on stage at some sort of conference giving ‘opening remarks’ to audience members who are bloated and flatulent (after the morning’s food service by sysco), but afraid to interrupt the branding-‘guru’ by audibly ripping, as would their proud biped ancestors.

Writers, especially freelance writers, are by their nature rather anonymous. They might get a byline, but that’s it. IPeople read the New York Times or National Geographic because of the name of the publication, not because of any individual that works there. If a publication can’t get their first choice to write an article, there are usually a bunch of other writers they can get for the same assignment. This is especially true in travel where you have so many people who want to get into the business.

Most people follow blogs precisely because of the personality behind the blog. Most large blogs have a personality behind it, or at least did when it was started, even if it is a mutli-author blog.

One thing I’ve noticed is that many of the most successful bloggers (at least today) do not have backgrounds in journalism or writing. They have backgrounds in management or entrepreneurship. I’m sure this will change over time, but I think it shows the coming to fruition of Jeff Jarvis’s prediction of “entrepreneurial journalism”.

That is why in the future, I think that large publications will still use freelancers (perhaps even more than today), but the exchange will different. Writers will take on these assignments only to supplement their income, and mostly to build their own brands via the exposure they get from larger outlets.

Thanks for stopping by and making these points.

The question ‘who pays you?’ is super valid, and I feel like this is a really important distinction:

People aren’t paying him [NomadicMatt] for his writing. He is making money from his position as a publisher, not a writer.

Still, I think there is another part to this that I needed to elaborate in the article. It comes down to this: I see NomadicMatt not just as ‘writer’ or, as you’ve more precisely defined him, ‘publisher’, but more as a masterfully-created ‘persona’, a readily-identifiable and marketable and apparently lucrative brand.

So for the writer in 2010, even if ‘who pays you’ is the fundamental question, it’s interesting to follow up with ‘why do they pay you?’ or ‘what do you represent to those who pay you?’

I feel like the more honestly writers can answer these questions, and the more aligned those answers are with what writers or bloggers or journalists truly want to be doing with their time (and for the long term) then the more potential success/happiness they’ll have.

Or something.

One quick clarification: By ’shit-talking’ I was referring to people attacking others because of their stance one way or the other on the ‘debate’ over travel ‘writing vs. blogging’. I think it’s a total waste of energy (although I recognize the ‘pageview-potential’ that these kind of discussions have for the publishers), time that could be spent actually writing or blogging, whatever it is you do when you sit down in front of the compu.

So just to clarify, I didn’t mean that you were shit-talking people.

If anything I like the clear way you break it down to raw economics.

You are 100% correct when you say “Being a writer (or whatever) in 2010 means getting paid to write what you want to write.” That is pretty much the definition of writer that I’m using. Someone pays you to money in exchange for your writing, either as a freelance or staff writer.

The question is “who pays you?” As you define it, NomadicMatt isn’t writer because he is getting his money either from advertisers or from direct sales of his ebook. People aren’t paying him for his writing. He is making money from his position as a publisher, not a writer.

The number of opportunities for travel writing (ie: someone paying you cash in exchange for an article) are drying up. What opportunities that still exist are paying less.

My own real claim is that writers have to move towards becoming publishers, which is something I really don’t think is that controversial.

I’m not anti-writer. I just recognize that writing (pay for hire) is different than blogging (internet publishing). They are just different business models and they aren’t even mutually exclusive with each other.

Thanks for the link.

With that in mind, you can find my “What a Trip” blog at http://www.Nancydbrown.com
Follow me on Twitter @Nancydbrown or @Ridinghorseback

I’ve also started a niche travel blog, http://www.writinghorseback.com for all the horsey equestrian lovers out there.

Wishing much success to my fellow writers and bloggers in 2010!

-truedat.

This is a great list. I’m almost frightened about the social media ‘gurus’ you mentioned – it’s important, for sure, but (for me) not so important that it should take so much attention from other aspects of being a writer. Tweeting a sucky article to thousands of followers doesn’t make it suddenly a not-sucky article.