Five for 50.  

On his 50th birthday, Anil Dash shares five ways to treat others, make things, and treat yourself. These five things confirm why Anil is my friend, mentor, and cofounder, whose expertise includes the ability to frame the passage of time in huge terms. Happy half-century, Anil!

Everything Kevin Kelly knows about self-publishing.  

(via) Kevin Kelly’s excellent essay about publishing today is that it’s all about self-publishing. These points jumped out at me:

• The traditional approach to publishing a book—write a proposal, get an agent, get a publisher, get an advance, write the book, do a tour, collect royalty checks—is over. (This related piece on the dire economics of traditional book publishing concurs.)
• Even with an agent and publisher, it’s up to you to supply your audience and market to them. (This was my experience with the Lifehacker book 15 years ago.)
• On-demand printing software and services are better than they’ve ever been for self-publishers. I especially like Kelly’s flow chart of platform recommendations depending on your goals and content. First question: “Have an audience?”
• The audience for text is stagnant and skews older, while the audience for video continues to expand while getting younger.

Being a book author has a lot more cachet attached to it than being a blogger. I’ve been both, and for me, engaging with an audience online is way more fun and fulfilling than having a book with my name on it sitting on a shelf.