Three insightful posts for indie creators
Here are a curated list of articles that inspired and challenged me this month. Each contains a fundamental truth to help indie creators.
Hi folks,
Trying something new again this week, which is to share three articles that inspired me from the past month.
Give yourself permission
First up is this post on Development Hell from Elliot Grove, which you can check out below.
Elliot digs into the (mostly abusive) development process for feature films, which is remarkably similar across multiple art forms, from TV, to comics, to games. The general gist of his post is that media gatekeepers are increasingly risk-averse, and using creators to mitigate the risks they should be taking. Free labour. Lost time. Endless revisions.
Sound familiar?
The solution is to recognize that ultimately none of these corporations would exist without the material we create, and that means we need to put ourselves first. There may be a time to work for low/no budget, but only if it serves your goal as a creator. Otherwise, we have to take matters into our own hands, and make the damn thing ourselves.
Easier said than one, to be sure, but there’s always a way - you just need to make it happen.
Storytellers are their own worst enemy
The second article is this great piece from Devon Halliday which provides a rapid overview of red flags in short story submission letters, and also issues with the opening paragraphs of stories themselves.
It doesn’t matter what format you’re working in, chances are that you have pitched your work to someone in a gatekeeping capacity, whether that’s a producer, editor, or commissioner. Pitching is hard, but it doesn’t help when you shoot yourself in the foot with a poorly written, researched, or downright desperate cover letter. The article provides some good advice on what not to do here, which is very helpful.
But the real gold is in the short story section, where Devon highlights the challenges of being a reader, and having to slog through the massive slush pile. Basic errors in the first paragraph mean your work is basically DOA, even if the rest of it is pure genius. This is the reality of the business. Readers are over-worked and under-paid, having to read hundreds of submissions in short time-frames. They are looking for any excuse to not read yours - yet writers continue to fail by not taking this into consideration. We want to think our work will be read in its entirety, but it won’t. You get a paragraph, or a single page, and if you can’t generate interest, it’s over.
I had first-hand experiences of this when reading submissions for Consumed, as I was literally reading hundreds of stories. Although I did make sure to read everything, this took a huge amount of time and mental capacity, and the difference between selection and non-selection was often razor-thin.
The take-away for creators, is that even when you feel the story is ready to submit, go back to the first paragraph and page, and ask yourself how it can be improved. I guarantee it can.
Social proof builds careers
The final article is this one from Stephen Follows, which focuses on the association between perceived film quality, and the timing of reviews.
The article used data to find that early reviews (publication date prior to release date) were correlated with higher film quality, and that this extends backwards in time - so that films being reviewed when still on their festival run, typically have higher quality scores when they are released in cinemas.
Films that studios feel may be weaker, tend to delay their reviews until the last possible moment - ensuring that audiences are essentially blind to the films, so that they achieve the highest possible box office. Conversely, when studios are confident in the film, they want reviews out much earlier to build word of mouth.
This is clearly another example of social proofing, which is something I’ve discussed before in the context of applying information theory to crowdfunding.
Here it would appear that early, positive reviews, will typically lead to herding behaviour, driving people to need to see the film on its opening weekend. This is very similar to how crowdfunding functions - just substitute campaign launch for release date.
What does this mean for indie creators? It again highlights that you need to share your work as early as you can. Get reviews. Do press. Do promotion. Ask for blurbs. I know this may be difficult for some of us - I know it’s often hard for me. But these are all information signals that we - as audience members and consumers - use as proxies for quality. If we want our work to be visible and to cut through the noise, then social proofing is a simple but critical tool that we can leverage. Do it early. Do it often. Just do it1.
What did you think of this post? Is it something you’d like me to do again (likely on a monthly basis)?
As always, feel free to drop your thoughts in the comments or through any other mechanism.
Are you interested in crowdfunding your book, but terrified about how to get started?
What if you could get practical evidence-based information that’s thoughtful, concise, and actionable?
That’s why I created Crowdfunding for authors, an introductory workshop I’m now making available as a bite-sized mini-course for indie authors. You can purchase the course through the link below - or you can become a paid subscriber and get unlimited access to that, and other stuff.
This is not a paid advert for Nike.
Excellent read as always John! Curating articles that YOU find helpful and sharing them is insanely cool to read and then find other substackers who are writing on their craft.