Netflix says it’s a great time to be a writer

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Netflix released all 13 episodes of the thriller House of Cards (a remake of the British mini-series of the same name, with Ian Richardson). And it’s all part of a couple of trends with a clear benefit to writers.

Kevin Spacey in Netflix’s “House of Cards”

The decision to make the entire season available in one go — rather than release one episode a week — has made the news.

For writers, however, the more interesting angle is that everybody wants to be in the content business.

Netflix built its business posting, then streaming, other people’s video content to subscribers. Now it’s making its own shows, including a new season of Arrested Development.
AMC entered the business of producing original shows four or five years ago, most notably bringing us Mad Men.
Hulu, which also started as a distributor of other company’s content, has its own shows, including Spoilers With Kevin Smith. In fact, the company has put $500 million into making its own content.

It’s not hard to see the pattern

In the printed word department, Amazon, as we all know, has been not just in the book-selling game but in the traditional publishing business for years. As well as “normal” books, Amazon is also in the content game commissioning Kindle Singles and Kindle Serials, or at least manning the gates of those sections of its bookstore.

Amazon’s not limiting itself to producing written content, either. Amazon has commissioned TV pilots, including Alpha House, starring John Goodman and written by Gary Trudeau of Doonesbury.

Audiences are smaller but…

More writers required All this fragmentation means that audiences for each outlet are smaller, but that’s only something to lament if you used to be NBC or one of the other tiny number of players, each controlling a huge share of the audience.

For you and me, more audiences means more demand for people who can produce content.

Trend #1: Companies are recognising that people value original content highly.

No, I’m not saying you’d have to start writing TV shows…

At the same time audiences have been fragmenting, people have been waking up to the value of their time. Unlike money, your time is something you can’t make any more of, which makes it valuable.

The more valuable you consider your time to be, the less tolerant you are going to be for marketing guff and superficial advertising.

Companies that want our attention are going to have to give us something valuable for it. Something like great content.

Last year my wife and I stayed at the Spadari al Duomo hotel in Milan. The hotel had left on our pillow a slim volume of two short stories. The hotel is part of the Hotels Association of the Golden Book, which believes books add a touch of class to the tourist experience. Which of course they do but, more importantly, someone had to write those stories.

Trend #2: Even companies that aren’t naturally in the media business are starting to realise they, too, can provide valuable original content.

The tools we use to self-publish our work are just as available to businesses. Writing and self-publishing is a service you’re qualified to offer.

I’ve argued for a long time that companies need to start self-publishing (see my white paper The Corporate Self-Publisher , for instance). If I were running a tourism destination, for example, it would be a no brainer for me to have my own travel guide on Amazon.

If I had a bakery, I’d definitely have a blog full of interesting information about my products, my production, how to bake, and so on.

But who says tourism operators and bakers can write?

The business world is waking up to the fact that people swap their attention for what’s interesting and useful to them.

Creating that content takes creative people. People like writers.

Sure, your dream might be to have your own novel, but there’s no shame in earning a living writing interesting things while you wait for your big break.

It’s an exciting time to be a writer.

More good news…

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