I listened to I Should Be Writing #99 today while I was at work.  Mur interviewed Scott Sigler and JC Hutchins about successfully podcasting their novels. Scott Sigler said something that completely blew my mind — I found myself with hands frozen on my keyboard, and what I had just heard playing back in my head over and over.  Here's what he said:

Scott Sigler: "When the Rookie came out I had a lot of emails that said 'I listened to your first four books and I didn't like any of them, but now I've heard the Rookie and it's great.  Do more stuff like that' … what on earth is happening when someone will try me out five times?"

As the man said, what on earth is happening?  

It seems to me that what we're witnessing is the speciation of publishing. A new kind of reader is taking advantage of a new media source: the internet. There is a new owner-operated model that is actually working. Traditional publishing is still there, with its agents, editors, contracts, copyright, print runs, and distributors, but it has a new close cousin and eventual competitor. For now they mostly serve two different markets, with a small amount of overlap, but eventually someone will lose the competition for resources (readers.)  In the age of podcasts and Kindles, it is not hard to guess which species will go extinct. 

Patrick has been trying to convince me that DIY internet publishing is the way to go for the past year. He has been right all along. Mur's show has countered all of the arguments I had.  Episode #99 dashed my final fear, which was "what if people don't like it?"  Apparently this new kind of reader doesn't mind that so much, and will give a writer another chance. 

And with that, I am officially out of excuses.