I Know, I Know

I've been busy writing, not so much blogging. Mea Culpa.

Name Change?

Due to my recent realization that I am a dunderhead at internet meme recollection, I am contemplating a name change from Step5 Media to Phase3 Media. And/Or possibly changing the media part to transmedia. Other ideas include making Phase3 the umbrella corp. for Step5. All of this is easy to do, since these companies all exist only in my imagination.

Any opinions out there? I like Step5 slightly better based on cool-factor, but Phase3 is more accurate. Hrmmm...

background info on the conundrum

Just a Quicky

Ya! I've got 2 more people than the woman who gave birth to me following my blog! How exciting! I'm not just spitting in the wind anymore!

What's Coming

If you really want to see where digital distribution is taking us, look at Apple's app store. Volume sales of really cheap media. That is the model that works, at least for now. Some companies (and individuals) are getting rich because they understand the model. Most of the established video game companies are floundering around, and likely will not survive the digital shift, when the package goods market dries up.

Amazon, and the Kindle marketplace, are another example. Some authors are getting rich, a lot more are getting their work out in front of readers for the first time. The big companies are mostly trying to pretend ebooks don't exist. Guess who is gonna survive this little tussle?

Recorded music, where this all started, is a nano-second away from benefiting from all this change. Artists are finally getting smart, realising they don't need a label to put their recordings in front of fans.

All of this change is going to accelerate, rapidly, as we move forward. The tablet market is going to have a huge effect on comic books, board games, and visual art. Better screens, smarter phones, and so on will continue to erode the physical markets for media. And then there's file-sharing.

Peer-to-peer file-sharing is unstoppable, and the death of copyright (as a tool of artificial scarcity) is inevitable. Making money from content will depend on convenience, low price, and easy accessibility. In digital media, scarcity is obscurity. And obscurity is not much of a marketing strategy.

The network infrastructure will improve, or wireless networking will get faster. Processors and related tech will always get more powerful, and cheaper. I'm not sure what the optimal financial strategy becomes in that world, or if the low price/high volume backed up by convenience model will continue to rule.

Rank speculation, and/or wishful thinking: I'm not even sure money will continue to be a useful concept, at least for non-physical goods. Art-barter, anyone? Hmmm...

Exciting News!!!

As of 9:40 this am, my blog has been acquired by Step5 Media! Okay, not exactly acquired. Wait, lemme see, how to explain. Got it.

As of 9:40 this am, my blog has birthed a new invincible overlord, Step5 Media. and, er... Still not quite it. herm...

What I am getting at here (all goofiness aside), is I have created a new ruling media conglomerate. Except that it is a single entity, and not ruling quite yet (okay, some goofiness aside.)

My new company is called Step5 media. I will be releasing all my blogs, podcast (yes, coming soon), audio-books, e-books, and so on under this imprint. Time to start building a "platform".

And why Step5, you ask? Step 5 = Profit!

All one of you followers out there (hi mom!), I am running a contest. Win free copies of my first drafts for life! All you have to do is suggest a better title for this blog. Wheee....

Part-Time Writer

New strategy folks. The take-this-seriously-as-though-it-was-already-a-paying-job strategy. I want to kick my progress up to the next level, so I am now treating my writing career the same as my day job. In other words, show up on a regular schedule, clock in and out, work while I am there. I am leaving out the not thinking about it at all when I get home part, though.

I have been taking time basically whenever I have it free. An hour here or there, and so on. I have been making progress, for sure. But I want to get a lot more done a lot faster. So, like I would start an exercise program, or a diet, I'll start a writing program. Discipline is key.

I doubt I have the time or energy to be full-time (yet), and I don't want to burn myself out. So I am going part-time, for now.

Of course the ultimate goal is to earn enough writing that full-time is not just a goal, but a fiscal necessity :)