Recent posts tagged audiences
2021
Insurance Policy
"The act of chasing everyone is probably keeping you from reaching anyone." - Seth Godin
What Flattery Gets You
Sometimes, a readership. Not that it's worth it.
2020
Another Life Touched
Depth of connection with an audience, even an audience of six, always wins out over sheer numbers.
2019
The Forever Draft
The idea is called "continuous publishing", and it doesn't thrill me.
2018
Nowhere Are We Commanded To Be Doormats
Kevin Drum dropped an aphorism worth repeating: "When you write, pretend you’re writing for people you respect."
For Me Or For Them Or For Us?
When you start by trying to please others instead of yourself, you end up pleasing no one.
What We Do In The Shadows
On ramping up from an audience that can be counted on one hand.
A Second Life On Video
Movies have more second lives than ever, but only because they barely have first ones.
But Will It Play For The Over-21 Set?
How different a standard should we have for works aimed at younger audiences vs. those aimed at "all" audiences?
The Critic-Proof Story
Spoiler: It doesn't exist.
If You Can't Please Yourself ...
Works don't exist just to please audiences. But authors also don't exist just to please themselves.
57 Channels Redux
And still nothing on.
2017
Me And One Other Fool
Who's really worth pleasing when you're writing? (And why?)
Action And Reaction And We-action
On not second-guessing audience responses to your work (again).
I'm Just Here For The Beer Dept.
On when not everyone who shows up for your work is showing up for your work.
2016
The Big Snub Dept.
At what point does "doing your own thing" become mere contempt for the audience?
Them's Fighting Words Dept.
On "pretentious" and "elitist".
2015
I'll Tell Me What To Do Dept.
"What kind of story should I write?" How about one that's, you know, yours?
Noise Filters Dept.
The uncanny has become the new normal.
2014
Fifty Million Elvis Fans Strike Back Dept.
Because if it's popular, it has to be good! Right? Right?
Many Legs And No Brain Dept.
There is no creativity by committee, but we love to believe otherwise.
Honk If You Like Baudelaire Dept.
On media as a water-cooler subject, and how it becomes about everything except itself.
Someone Else's Eyes Dept.
The eyes we give creators to look through aren't even their own anymore -- they're a composite of everyone else's.
Dr. Goodreads Dept.
On why hyping yourself always feels like it should be someone else's job -- except when it really isn't.
Flop Of The Pops Dept.
Empire's greatest-movies list is skewing unpleasantly towards spectacle and superficial fanboyism.
