Have you ever had one of those days when you wonder what it’s all about? I remember once hearing a “fanatic” defined as one who increases his speed after losing track of his goal. That’s not exactly how I feel today. It’s more as though I keep plugging along despite not experiencing the results which seem would be the primary drive that would keep me going.
I felt the drive about eleven years ago to get my first idea for a book developed and into print. I accomplished that in 2008. Then I got busy on the next and the next books. Now I have six books in print and three piano sheet-music books that I co-composed. And yet, sales are miserably low. Although I knew all along I needed to do something about marketing, I failed to find out just what that was. One friend told me I needed to blog consistently. Another friend said I needed to offer time-limited free email editions of my books. Long before all this advice I was informed and assured that no traditional publisher would lift a finger to market any book I might produce, unless through my own efforts I generated lots of interest and significant sales.
An artist (writing, music, painting) is not necessarily proficient at marketing. In fact, an artist might either have no knack for such things or worse yet have no interest in such things. Hence, the rise of the term “starving artist.” I have a close friend who writes prolifically and beautifully, and yet has little interest in learning the nuts and bolts of marketing. I don’t blame her. It doesn’t come naturally to me either.
And yet there is so much drive inherent in being able to create something, whether it is a book, a piano composition, or a painting, that no one else has or ever will produce that keeps artists all over the world pressing forward. I guess all artists wish we could be the modern day equivalent of a Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Beethoven, a
J.K.Rowling, Picasso, John Williams.
And, though I might sound discouraged, the fact that I can create is worth all the “quiet before the storm” (satisfying numbers of sales).
I am going to attach another painting, as much to make sure I can remember how to do it, as to “show off” a little. Please indulge me.
Obviously, I couldn’t find another painting, so I am including a pencil drawing I did some 15 years ago.