Erica Barry is a media and entertainment professional with a passion for technology and content creation. Barry has been drawn to digital media since the early days of the Internet, and she quickly learned how to leverage digital platforms to create her own content and find an audience.  

In high school, she created a food blog that received hundreds of thousands of page views and  got her brand sponsorships. Today, she wants to use her knowledge and success in digital spaces to help teach others how to achieve the same things through her new book, Don’t Wait, Create: How to Be a Content Creator in the New Digital Revolution, which is being published by New Degree Press later this month.

Growing up in the Internet generation, Erica watched digital media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok transform the entertainment industry and become a way for talented creators to find their audiences and tell their story. That inspired her to write Don’t Wait, Create, which provides a roadmap to digital content creation and finding one’s creative voice, while highlighting the journeys of successful digital creators like Bo Burnham, Sarah Cooper, Chloe Fineman, Jimmy Tatro, and many others.

Actress, writer, and producer Selina Ringel, who has embodied the mantra of “don’t wait, create” throughout her career in the entertainment industry, wrote the foreword to Barry’s book. She says: “As a creator, it’s hard at times to believe anything will work. It’s incredibly time-consuming, anxiety-producing, and it will expose your vulnerabilities. That being said, Erica’s book will show you how other people have created their content and catapulted their careers into the stratosphere by doing it.” Ringel’s film, Single Mother By Choice, will premiere on a major streaming platform this fall.

For the first time in history, content creators have control, and there are many low-cost paths to reach a broad audience. Barry stresses the importance of just creating something and putting it out there for the world to see and gauging audience reaction to get a better idea of what viewers like and don’t like as you shape your content and build up your brand. She feels the floodgates are now open for all types of content to enter the mainstream, and it’s a matter of figuring out what content best fits your interests and skills as a creator.

According to a recent report from Global Web Index, the average person now has an average of 7.6 active social media accounts. Barry points out that “few people have harnessed the true power and responsibility that comes with these platforms.”  Finding success with content creation involves following trends and understanding metrics while continuing to incorporate your individuality and ingenuity into the larger digital conversation.  Barry hopes that Don’t Wait, Create will inspire would-be creators to find their voice, gain a following and realize their potential.

“In the past, you had to fit into a narrow box defined by Hollywood to get your content seen and monetized,” she says. “Now you have all the tools you need to create your own work immediately. You can create a community, share your ideas with others, and entertain the world—no permission necessary.”

For more information on Erica Barry’s work in the digital media landscape, visit www.ericabarry.com.  Don’t Wait, Create: How to Be a Content Creator in the New Digital Revolution is scheduled to be published by New Degree Press on August 30, 2021.