Are We Living In A Golden Age For Entrepreneurs?

Several recent events have got me thinking along these lines, but I should really start at the beginning.

Which, for me, was a couple of years ago (almost to the month) when I decided to write my first book. I had known all along that I would self-publish, rather than open myself up to the rejection and ridicule of trying to convince some publishing house to take a flyer on me. Since, at the time that I decided on the writing assignment, I'd not done any research at all into self-publishing, I pessimistically assumed that it would be an expensive undertaking. In fact, I think I said to Vicki that I would "set aside about $1000 and print whatever number of copies that would get me." My plan at that point was to give copies away, because really... who'd want to pay for the privilege of reading a book by a nobody?

Once I'd looked into it more, though, I realized that it was much cheaper than I'd expected. Where I'd imagined copies costing perhaps as much as $50 apiece (meaning that my $1000 would give me 20 copies to give away to friends and family), I discovered that a print run of any reasonable size (say, 10 or more) could be done with a price point no higher than $10 to $20, depending on the format and page count. Wow! What a revelation that was!

The relative ease and low cost of self-publishing meant that I could do ahead with my plan, which eventually lead to dozens of sales, a second AgileMan book and even thoughts of a fiction book (not to be confused with "a fictional book", which is its status at the moment). The important point here is that there proved to be very few obstacles in the way of my becoming an entrepreneurial author, beyond the inescapable challenges of actually doing the work. I didn't need to deal with publishers who might want to change my words or approach (possibly for the better, though we'll probably never know), or agents who would take a cut, or marketers who could have presented the book as something that it's not. (Although, hardly a month goes by without AgileBoy reminding me of just what a lousy job I've done advertising the AgileMan books myself, so perhaps marketers wouldn't have been all bad...)

Along similar lines, a former co-worker of mine made big news recently by quitting his job after creating a very popular - and therefore lucrative - iPhone application. Now, in this case, Apple gets a slice of every dollar made, but the majority of the money (I believe) flows directly into the hands of the application's creator. Once again, a person with some creative juices has been able to get their product out on the market without too much difficulty, and is reaping most of the rewards of their labour. Yay for "the little guy!"

Just last night, a new acquaintance of mine passed along the story of his brother, who has self-published a book on the topic of "what it takes to get into the Fire Department" and did very well for himself (selling thousands of copies on his own, and then eventually landing a publisher for the book). That success story clearly outstripped anything that I've accomplished with my AgileMan books (so far), but definitely provided inspiration to me, nevertheless!

It may, in fact, be the case that it's never been easier to "make good" on your dreams than it is right now - today! - early on in the 21st century. Sure, we're in the middle of a terrible Recession, and the stock markets are still down... but just as artists can be appreciated (and potentially even "discovered") through their use of YouTube, online comics, blogging, and the like, virtually any kind of creative energy that one might possess is more likely to find a low-cost entry point into the marketplace than has ever existed before.

In other words, we may be living in a Golden Age for such things. Isn't that pretty exciting, when you think about it?