Full Circle: My Journey as an Independent Online Author
Hi. Looking back, I can clearly divide my journey as an author between 2000 and now into four distinct phases.
1. Independent Online E-Book Author as Side Hustle (c. 2000–2012)
While working full-time, I started writing, publishing and selling my own short e-books online on ‘Making Money Online’, ‘Online Marketing’, Online Freelancing’, ‘Digital Nomads’ and ‘Working From Home’ as online side-hustle.
2. Corporate Management Book Author (2013–2019)
I wrote corporate managementbooks for large traditional publishers in Dutch on their demand for the corporate management world, the corporate managementindustry’, in The Netherlands.
3. Corporate Management E-Book Author (2020–2024)
I wrote international corporate management e-books for Bookboon as I wanted to write and publish corporate management e-books in Englisch and Dutch. They asked their customers what they wanted and I wrote the corporate management e-books in English (see here) and in Dutch (see here).
Since the democratization of AI in 2022, I focus on ‘personal right-skilling’: learning the right soft- and hard-skills to survive and thrive in the ai-powered online economy as an independent online solopreneur.
4. Independent Online Author (2024–Present)
Full circle.
Since 2024, I am back where I started: writing, publishing, selling and giving away my own practical day-to-day experiences in the form of short reads, short management e-books, short e-books, workbooks and low content independently. For online side-hustlers, online solopreneurs and people that lose their fixed jobs because of the introduction of AI inside their organization.
The difference with 2000 when I started to make money online with short reads as online side-hustle next to my dayjob is that I now bring more than twenty-six years of additional hands-on day-to-day experience both in the corporate management world and as online solopreneur, author and cartoonist after having left the corporate rat race in 2011.
Another big difference is that I use different AI-models and AI-applications online and on my desktop since the ‘Democratization of AI in 2022’ . I use them as my personal ‘My AI Models’ practical toolset to be more productive and more creative.
Depending on what I need to do, I use different AI Models. Including non-BIg Tech AI Models if I want to generate and publish content that Big Tech AI Companies do not allow me to generate or publish on their online platforms. But that I am legally allowed to generate, publish and/or have in my personal possession in The Netherlands.
Alongside a growing series of practical low-priced short reads, workbooks and low content for a variety of blue ocean audiences, I publish new corporate management e-books on demand including updated editions of my previously published corporate management e-books. On my own sites and on channels i choose myself.
I am still publishing in both English and Dutch.
Looking Back
When I look back at my journey as an author of e-books and physical books, I see a full circle. I started as independent online author and publisher and I will end as independent online author and publisher.
Often the best way forward is to return to what you enjoyed doing best in the first place. In my case that was: total freedom around writing and publishing online — this time with more experience, better non-corporate tools and complete independence.
Reach out
Want to know more about how you can make money with your own relevant knowledge and experience with your own digital blue ocean business strategy? Including as indie author of short non-fiction ebooks for people in your digital blue ocean? And how you can use AI for this as part of your own new AI-powered business model. Then send us an email or dm me on LinkedIn. Then we make an appointment.
