Making it in the long tail

By Michael Fraase

Tuesday, 18 March 2008 08:36PM CST

Section: Business

Delacroix's FanaticsBack 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.

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