I’m a Seth Godin fan. Have been ever since I read (listened to) Tribes while training for my first half marathon at the end of 2008. While I don’t always agree with his blog posts, his books have always made me think. And now I’m kinda working for him.

Not for pay or really anything besides free books, but rather because I, and I’m sure many other budding writers, feel that the current publishing system could be better. It doesn’t seem like it should be all that complicated to write, publish and market a book today. Thanks to the Domino Project, which selected me and Jeff Moriarty as part of their Street Team, self publishing is about to become a little easier. And not a moment too soon, as recent self-published author Ann Videan can attest:

“There’s an awe inspiring talk which Seth Godin gave to the Independent Publisher’s Association last August. He basically shoots holes in the old method of publishing — shoving a book out to the masses — and shows the indies the value of becoming niche tribe leaders who publish books within and for the tribe. He says they’ll have only four steps in the publishing process — curation, leadership, connection, and creation of a movement — and in 10 years they’ll kick themselves if they don’t follow these steps now.”

Neither Jeff nor I have completely grasped what exactly our involvement with the Domino Project Street Team will look like, there’s no question that a lot of people in AZ could well use more information and options on getting their work published.

We also know that there are plenty of storytellers in AZ that may not publish written work, or simply want to improve their writing skills. Inspired by the Domino Project, we’d like to gauge interest in a larger workshop-type event that brings together people with different skills (say, a podcast producer and a PR pro specializing in client communication) to share ideas and improve each other in a meaningful way. The first meeting for such will be at Gangplank from 7:30-9pm on March 1. This workshop is very different than the Friends of Chandler Library I mentioned yesterday and I hope, that as people who are paid to tell all kinds of stories, that one or both may interest you.