Novelist and video blogger John Green delivered the keynote speech at Mediabistro’s Publishing App Expo today.
In a presentation entitled “How Nerdfighters Can Save Publishing,” Green shared lessons he learned while building one million Twitter followers and millions of YouTube views.
We’ve collected five lessons from Green’s presentation below. Follow this link to register for the conference.
1- Everybody who made videos in 2007 (except Ze Frank) sucked. It’s better to be first than it is to be great.
2- Work with communities of readers online. Green connected with Ze Frank fans, Lonelygirl15 fans and Harry Potter fans.
3. Remain project focused–doing things with your audience, not doing things for your audience.
4. If you monetize things on your blog, from t-shirts to music to mugs to books, make sure you have ownership of all the items.
5. Authors successful online see the Internet as an extension of their work, they do it to experience the “same thrill of co-creating something with their audience.”
6. The biggest problem is discovery. It is going to be the central issue for publishers and writers in the future.