This terrific article is well worth the read and a bit of contemplation. The times have never been better, in my opinion, for writers who want to get read, and paid. There is so much potential in the internet, eBooks and the business in general it is, for me, a very exciting time to be a writer.
I think the Salad Days of writing, the 1920s to 1950s, were great in that you had a market for short stories and there was more chance a novel could get published and make a few bucks. Radio was around and TV was in its infancy but people still read and read for pleasure. Magazines were full of short stories and some genre, like Sci-Fi and Crime, kept a lot of mouths fed over the years. The advent of TV, video and then cable and now the internet changed the publishing scene and cut off a few income streams for writers for a while.
Today there is a lot more competition with something like a million new publications, in English, worldwide every year but the growth in ebook sales proves people still love to read. While sales have flattened in the last year or so, I think there is still a place to make a living from writing for all online. If, as the article suggests, you can also take advantage of a traditional publishing deal if offered and then return to self publishing, all the better for writers the world over.
