If you are an author, musician or artist and have written a book, publish a zine, have a collection of art, photos, videos or original music that you would like to publish and get paid for, Click on about to email me after you read this.
I was thinking about the many positive communications that I have had in the last few days about the digital download opportunity that has opened up for all of us who create books, zines, sounds and videos that can be digitized and produced for a fraction of the cost that was involved in the past.
Everyone is quite excited - I think because
No More Fear - because of the following:
No huge financial outlay to pay for physical merchandise
No waiting for a Publisher or Label to "give you permission to offer your work"
No physical inventory
No packaging
No shipping
24/7 sales
No middle men or complex distribution channels
But there is the Fear that we still have to address -
CHANGE
When I used to have to physically publish a book or newsletter I had to pay high costs to get the physical processes done - design, layout, printing, binding, shipping -
Those costs would severely restrict what I could do.
Would it be color or black and white? If I had graphic or visual material, maybe I couldn't publish it, because of the high cost of printing high quality full color.
How many could I publish? Too few and the cost per item was too high. Too many and the overall cost was too much, plus, then I have more inventory than I could possiby move.
Storage - where am I going to keep all of these boxes of material?
When I looked at releasing CD's I found that I had exactly the same problems. Color labels, high duplication costs per unit unless I duplicated thousands, but then the overall cost is too high. Where do I keep all these CD's?
Then there was the problem of distribution, marketing and advertising. Since I wasn't going through a label or publisher, I had to advertise myself. Where? Who would carry my product? How did I get it to them? What if they wanted to return it?
The list goes on and on and on. The things to Fear increased more and more.
But I got used to having a garage full of boxes and I got used to paying the price of shipping and wondering if the product got there on time or not.
In fact, these physical things gave me comfort. Even if I wasn't selling anything, I could go to the garage and see all the stuff that I had bought. And when I did get to ship a few I felt good going to the post office and sending them out. It wasn't profitable and it wasn't effective, but I got used to it.
Over time, I even got used to spending several thousand dollars for the privilege of going through this and as time went by, the sting of the thousands spent seemed to become less and less.
Now, I can spend $75 to $100 to get something much better. It takes a little getting used to. I won't have boxes of books or CD's in my garage. No trips to the post office. Everyone can find my product who can get on the Internet.
That seems so different that it Scares me. Part of my mind is used to all the other stuff and has a hard time letting go.
Then, there is another fear that is even deeper for all of us and for those who have never even produced their own work.
Fear of failure - Direct Failure
If I can't get a Label or a Publisher to take my work - I can blame the Label or Publisher for not having the vision or business sense to see that my work is going to be a best seller. It is the Label or Publisher's fault.
I get used to blaming the Label or Publisher for my lack of success - and there's a whole set of reasons that I build up to explain why they are biased, why they won't take my work, even though it is obviously so good.
I get used to that.
Doing something different that puts my work out in front of millions of the buying public becomes a source of Fear.
We all feel it.
Now, I can put my work out there, and when people like it they buy it. But there are no more excuses. There is nothing between Me and Them.
The Really Young will not have these fears - They will put their work on the Internet as digital downloads just like the rest of us dial our cel phones - without really thinking about it, and certainly without fearing it.
We can do the same. In fact, those artists and writers who jump first will become among the first BreakOut Artists who become known using the Internet as Our publishing medium. Some will become famous. Some will even become wealthy. All will have a Huge sense of satisfaction at not having to wait for a label or publisher to "give us permission" and not being held back by a lack of several thousand dollars to spend on product that mostly sits in the garage.
We will instead, produce more. We will test more by putting up a greater variety of work. We won't have so much riding on one book or one CD. We will put up four or five books and ten or twelve CD's for very little money and We will be able to let the strong sellers stay on the Internet, pull the weak ones off and go on to produce more work to test on the public. We will not be afraid that something doesn't sell. We will learn from that and We will learn to make a profit that will allow Us to spend more time doing what We really love. Producing More Work - with No More Fear.
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