Regardless of what career path you follow, the ability to promote yourself and build a following is fast becoming an critical skill. One of the better books on the topic is Scott Kirsner's
Fans, Friends And Followers: Building An Audience And A Creative Career In The Digital Age[
Excellent creative career self-promotion guide free for limited time If you are a glass-half-full type, you’ve already realized that the era of digital creativity presents incredible opportunities. You can do what you love, reach an audience, and earn some money. What starts off as a small fan base can quite suddenly go global, enabling you to quit your day job and earn a solid living.
The flip side is that there has never been a noisier, more competitive time to try to make art, entertain people, and tell stories. Everyone is doing it, and so there is an incredible surplus of content in every art form.
In 2000, 973 full-length films were submitted to the Sundance Film Festival, generally considered the best platform for launching a new indie movie. By 2008, that number had risen to 3,624. (Just 121 were accepted.)
Think about a band trying to build a reputation in Los Angeles, a city with about 50 FM radio stations – and perhaps just three or four that matter in any particular genre (like Latino music, hip hop, or rock.) Now think about trying to build a reputation online. A link to the band’s MySpace page from any one of several hundred well-regarded music blogs might result in a sold-out show. A song included in any of the thousands of podcasts that are distributed through iTunes might catch fire.
Breaking out, somehow, is both more of a possibility than it has ever been – and harder than it has ever been.
The attention of an individual audience member anywhere in the world is simultaneously easier to snare (a multi-million-dollar marketing campaign is no longer required) – and harder than ever to snare.
I wanted to write this book to share some of the ways that artists are grappling with those paradoxes.
In conversations over the past three years, I’ve been asking questions about how artists are attracting audiences and building careers in the online world.
There's a write up and sample text available at Amazon if you'd like to take a look:
http://www.amazon.co...ativeASIN=1442100745A paperback copy will set you back about $16 from Amazon. But Scott is celebrating the 2010 SXSW Week (
www.sxsw.com ) by offering a copy in PDF format for free at the following link:
Info and download link:
http://www.scottkirs...er.com/fff/sxsw.htmlHey, South-by-Southwesters: for the duration of the 2010 festival I’m making the complete 132-page e-book of Fans, Friends & Followers available for free, as a PDF download. (Published just last year, the book has sold thousands of e-book copies at $12.00)
This isn’t just some schlocky promotion (I hope), but a way of saying “thanks”: the SXSW community was incredibly helpful to me in researching and writing this book.
This is a great book, loaded with ideas you can either "borrow," or use to spark some of your own. Although primarily geared towards creative types, the core concepts apply to virtually every career. In this economy, the ability to "sell yourself" isn't just a plus - it's a necessity.
The clock is ticking. Grab your free copy now.
