Punk Publishing

When I met writers/journos Alex Tanner and Mike Butcher for a cup of tea in London on Wednesday this week, I sat there with a little wonder. These guys were talking to me (I think) as some sort of peer. They were talking to Piers the publisher.  These guys with writing skills, training, experience and a great understanding of how to put a story together were chatting to me about the state of publishing and the fact that the traditional publishing houses in the UK and the US have failed to really capitalize on the trend for blog and all things Web 2.0.

I mean, I’m just a punk who manages this purple website. But as I talked to the writers, we compared what’s going on with the music industry in the seventies. In 1976 punk broke onto the music scene and changed the rules of music. Music was democratized – you didn’t even need to be able to sing or know how to play music:

You just needed a guitar!

Now blogging is having the same impact on publishing. Anyone can pick up a blog and play it. Of course, a lot of rubbish gets produced but some great gems get created too that wouldn’t have normally been produced under the old system. This is the era of punk publishing! Look around the blogosphere – can you spot the Sex Pistols? Or the Clash? There are definitely a few Malcolm McLaren wannabees – but can you see a great entrepreneur like the one we got from that era: Richard Branson?