Back when I was writing full-time, it became apparent to me that the same people were buying my books. Over and over again. I’d see the same faces at speaking engagements and conferences. At first I thought it was a little weird, but then I got used to it. Kevin Kelly calls this 1,000 true fans and offers it up for artists as an escape from the long tail.
As Kelly notes, the long tail benefits consumers and aggregators, but not creators. But to make a living, the creator need only acquire 1,000 true fans; 1,000 individuals who will buy anything and everything you produce:
“A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author—in other words, anyone producing works of art—needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.”
If you could acquire one true fan each day for three years, you’d have 1,095 true fans. If each of those true fans spent US$100 each year on what you produce, you’d see annual revenues of US$109,500. A fine living by anyone’s estimation.
The hard part is nurturing those true fans. I could never figure out how to do that, although I came close once. When I wrote the Internet Tour Guide series I included a return-mail postcard for two free updates. Unfortunately, my publisher decided that I was probably onto something and absconded with the cards (and my money). After two years of litigation I got at least some of the cards (and not very much of my money), but by then it was too late.
Kelly distinguishes between direct fans and indirect fans. If you produce your work through an intermediary—say, a book publisher—you’ll need more true fans because your fans are indirect and mediated by a third party. “When you have corporations involved in taking the majority of the revenue for your work, then it takes many times more True Fans to support you,” Kelly writes. “To the degree an author cultivates direct contact with his/her fans, the smaller the number needed.”
With my next book, Information Eclipse, I disintermediated the publishing industry and went direct to fans. It almost worked. I can’t say it was a failure—net income was higher than anything else I’ve done, but it wasn’t sustainable.
Maybe for my next work I’ll try Kelsey and Schneier’s Street Performer Protocol.
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