Create & Wait: An Author’s Worst Marketing Approach

Many authors, filmmakers and artists, work under a strange type of “create and wait” mindset. According to this approach once a work has been created, an artist has completed his or her work and can't be bothered with marketing or promotion.

Some feel that they shouldn’t have to market their art, others are loath to invest in their work. Those are such strange attitudes to hold around something that is so important. When I ask artists what is most important to them, the response is invariably, their art. If it’s not number one on their list, it is assuredly in the top three. Yet when it comes to caring for their art, which by definition involves marketing and promotion, that importance often seems to plummet.

This a strange disconnect. Not that it’s not understandable. We live in a culture where art is generally seen as an avocation or a hobby. We view those artists who have made it as anomalies. We could never be one of those success stories. When young artists tell their peers or families about their dreams, they are generally told to grow up and find a suitable career. Without support, is it any wonder that so many simply give up their art, or do so in secret? What other venture would have people hiding as opposed to promoting their work?

The other trap is when artists believe that marketing is beneath them. They've done their work and shouldn't have to bother themselves with marketing or PR. To those I simply say - join the real world and your chances of success will increase exponentially.

If this describes you, change your mindset – now!

The best book or film in the world needs a bridge built between it and its audience. From my perspective, building that bridge is something that artists owe to their work. It's incumbent on them to give their work the best chance it can to succeed, reach an audience, and touch others.

The trick here is to view promotion as an art.

If you can afford it, hire a professional. If not, don’t wait. There are tools you can learn and implement on your own.

Learn the art of marketing; the art of PR.

Have fun with it, experiment, be bold.

To quote Goethe: “Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

And the truth is if you adhere to the “create and wait” philosophy, chances are you will wait and wait and…
You get the picture.
Writers not only need to be bold in their work, they need to be bold in how they market their work.
One artist told me, he was confident his art would be discovered once he passed on. But, waiting to die in order for one’s art to be discovered doesn’t quite seem like the most effective marketing plan for your work.

Take action.
And, remember Goethe –
Be bold.

The Art of Fiction in the Time of Trump

Fiction can generally reveal truth more powerfully than fact.

And in these times when the definition of what we once knew as facts and truth is melting every bit as fast as glaciers, fiction is perhaps more needed than ever.

These are chaotic and unsettling times of walls, fear, and suspicion. The rancor and vitriol seems to be perpetually stuck in high gear. People feel unsafe and unsure, tossed about in the divisiveness and turbulence. Many feel helpless, hopeless, and voiceless.

And because of that:

The role of the storyteller is now paramount. This is an era of pomposity and empty rhetoric. More than ever we need the truth found in novels, plays, films, fables, and poems.

Fiction can communicate both subtly and deeply. It can shine light in the darkness. It communicates at a visceral level and can fly past the radar. It can be difficult and unsettling but can also create change and dissolve despair.

In a very real sense, writing is magic.

But instead of waiting for the return of Merlin, we now need boldness. We need the courage to believe in our unique vision and the daring to move forward with blind faith.

The world is sounding a call to action. If you ever doubted the importance of your creative work, this is the time to put that doubt aside. Others have paved the way and have shown the impossible to be possible. They have moved through their doubts and past their personal dark-night-of-the-soul, and have created. They have impacted their world. They have changed hearts and minds.

Blaze your own trail. To quote Emerson, which I seem to do quite a lot, “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

This is no time for writers to doubt or hide their work.

This is not a time to be timid or hesitant.

Let your work shine particularly in the darkness. You’ll never know who the light will reach or what it will reveal.

Perhaps Francis Bacon put it best: “In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.”

Go forth, and write.