What we need is an effective scouting system, where new talent is spotted, nurtured, groomed, and finally given a chance to play in the big arenas. It’s what publishers ought to be doing, but their focus instead is mostly on players who have already made the grade, who can already sell the sponsored shirts for them.

Time I think for a new nursery system – which is exactly what you’ve started.

Sports metaphors exhaust me!
If, for some reason, I didn’t get across what I was trying to say:
Not only are we reading in articles, posts, etc. that we are creators and are allowed to write, we’re also capable of sharing our work without the “hassle” of acceptance by a publisher (aka, we publish it ourselves!).

A ‘flooded’ market? Interesting.

In the UK there are around 40,000 football clubs – maybe a million active players. The vast majority of games are watched by one man and his dog – sometimes just the dog. Just a handful are watched by 10,000 – 80,000 spectators. But because so many people are playing, we wouldn’t call this a flooded market – just an active one.

In due course, I’m sure the same will happen with writing. There’s a huge surge of popularity for writing because suddenly everyone’s been given a pair of boots and a ball. The old league system is on the brink of collapse, and spectators aren’t quite sure who to go and watch. But new teams and associations will emerge soon, and quality will come through, as it always does.

This is beginning to feel like a post … I think I’ll continue tomorrow.

Great post, by the way. I think you’ve latched on to a good idea here. Also, you’re right about not clutching at rights as an author. Supporting yourself off of your writing is only possible with a paying audience and that audience is difficult to build with our current flooded market. I think that upping your value and adding sharing incentives is going to increase the size and quality of your audience.