I'm an artiste. I'm also a business person. I sell my art for money.
Many artistes experience an internal conflict between treating their creations as things to be enjoyed by the general public and selling that art in whatever form it takes. This conflict comes about partly from the attitude that some consumers have, where they feel like art - in all its forms - should be available freely for consumption; and partly from the view, they have of themselves as creators and not merchants.
I don't have that problem.
I both create art for consumption and have no problem selling that art.
That's why I call myself an authorpreneur. I have no pretensions or illusions about why I do this.
It's not for the money.
But I do intend to make money from my art in my lifetime. Whether it's grocery money or billions, I create for sale.
See.
It's not that hard to admit.
I've seen authors who are reluctant to create author pages.
"What is the purpose of that?" they ask.
And I don't understand how a mind can conceive of a story, but not possess sufficient imagination to understand that their creations require promotion. What's that about people? Pretension?
Perhaps it's because I not only create for myself, but also for others that I understand the commercial side of creation.
My marketing began purely by accident. I was writing Chrianna fanfic just to see if I could, after reading Chrianna stories on Tumblr. I gathered a rather large following; mostly fans of the artists. After my publisher put out Between Death and Heaven, which is now self-published as In The Shadow of the Styx, I just directed that following to my original fiction. That experience made me understand that generating your own publicity is vital to getting your book noticed. So I continue to do that, write fanfiction and use it to advertise my original fiction. I also write short stories and publish them on public websites and redirect my readers to my author page.
It's slow going, I won't lie to you. But that's organic growth for you. It's a steep slope and then one day, it just takes on a life of its own. You can't give up before you reach that point okay? You'll get demoralized, you'll get tired, you just have to factor that in to your long-term plans.
And keep writing, keep innovating your content, your media, how you deliver it...keep putting your name out there.
You have to embrace both sides, the creative and the commercial and hopefully one day, your books are on bestseller lists and you can retire to Jamaica and open a bar on the beach; live out the rest of your days in a bikini.
Sound good?
Great.
Here's a lil fanfic I wrote and while you're getting impressed by my writing skills, visit my author page and hang out with me a bit. Sample the free books, buy the others, leave me reviews, ask a question. I'm open for business.
Speaking of inspiration to keep your nose to the grindstone, the #saveshadowhunters campaign is at ten million tweets as of this week, thousands of dollars raised for the Trevor Project, a plane and a billboard. All to save a show. I mean seriously, sometimes you just gotta keep going even when you have no idea whether you will be successful. Along the way, you might find that you do a lot of good, gain a few friends and make the world a better place than you found it. Success is not always monetary. Happy New Month my friends.
Also, I was thinking about having a monthly newsletter similar in style to the above. Would my subscribers be interested?
Many artistes experience an internal conflict between treating their creations as things to be enjoyed by the general public and selling that art in whatever form it takes. This conflict comes about partly from the attitude that some consumers have, where they feel like art - in all its forms - should be available freely for consumption; and partly from the view, they have of themselves as creators and not merchants.
I don't have that problem.
That's why I call myself an authorpreneur. I have no pretensions or illusions about why I do this.
It's not for the money.
But I do intend to make money from my art in my lifetime. Whether it's grocery money or billions, I create for sale.
See.
It's not that hard to admit.
I've seen authors who are reluctant to create author pages.
"What is the purpose of that?" they ask.
And I don't understand how a mind can conceive of a story, but not possess sufficient imagination to understand that their creations require promotion. What's that about people? Pretension?
Perhaps it's because I not only create for myself, but also for others that I understand the commercial side of creation.
My marketing began purely by accident. I was writing Chrianna fanfic just to see if I could, after reading Chrianna stories on Tumblr. I gathered a rather large following; mostly fans of the artists. After my publisher put out Between Death and Heaven, which is now self-published as In The Shadow of the Styx, I just directed that following to my original fiction. That experience made me understand that generating your own publicity is vital to getting your book noticed. So I continue to do that, write fanfiction and use it to advertise my original fiction. I also write short stories and publish them on public websites and redirect my readers to my author page.
And keep writing, keep innovating your content, your media, how you deliver it...keep putting your name out there.
You have to embrace both sides, the creative and the commercial and hopefully one day, your books are on bestseller lists and you can retire to Jamaica and open a bar on the beach; live out the rest of your days in a bikini.
Sound good?
Great.
Here's a lil fanfic I wrote and while you're getting impressed by my writing skills, visit my author page and hang out with me a bit. Sample the free books, buy the others, leave me reviews, ask a question. I'm open for business.
Speaking of inspiration to keep your nose to the grindstone, the #saveshadowhunters campaign is at ten million tweets as of this week, thousands of dollars raised for the Trevor Project, a plane and a billboard. All to save a show. I mean seriously, sometimes you just gotta keep going even when you have no idea whether you will be successful. Along the way, you might find that you do a lot of good, gain a few friends and make the world a better place than you found it. Success is not always monetary. Happy New Month my friends.
Also, I was thinking about having a monthly newsletter similar in style to the above. Would my subscribers be interested?
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