My books are now here and I am shipping them as I receive orders now! It’s been a long time coming but all the pieces are almost all in place. In the last couple of months, the work ahead seemed challenging but still somewhat solid. Now, it feels like I’ve been cast once again into the wild because all of the leg work is done and now comes the terrifying prospect of marketing.
When I first started this project, I never envisioned that it would be a big exercise in learning how to market oneself in the digital age. My initial thought was simple: write a book. I had the notes and I could draw the comics so I just kind of worked on this project without giving much thought to where it was going. I’ve only very recently in the last couple of months understood the full meaning of the term “artrepreneur”. Originally I had heard the term a couple of years ago when I read an article about how artists nowadays have to learn the business side of their art. This is to say, you can do your art, but you have to learn how to shill your product. One of my besties is an actress and she became aware of this aspect of her art a couple of years ago when she first started out. It never hit home with me until now.
What people don’t tell you about “going it alone” is that in many ways, the discomfort of having to be someone’s bitch can never compare to the discomfort of putting yourself out there and facing rejection after rejection. This isn’t to say that I regret leaving the firm for even a second – it is simply a realization that nothing ever turns out like you’d expect. When you’re working for someone else, those parts are easy. You show up. You do some work. Life just kind of hums along. When you’re working on your own, you have to be your own boss. Everything falls on your shoulders. The responsibility and pressures are enormous and the chances of success are minuscule. Yet, everything you do is to build something yourself – to try to make something unique.
Perhaps the exercise is pointless and doomed to fail. Why bother trying to be different when everything just pulls you towards being the same? What is even the point of fighting so hard when it’s so easy to just click into the system and hum along? I don’t know the answer. I suppose it’s just what you’re compelled to do. Whether you like it or not, if you’re compelled to do something different then what’s even the use in fighting it? Either way, it’s going to be hard. So pick your poison and drink it fast. The rest is just a collection of time and effort. At least this way hopefully Illl have something to point to at the end of it.
