This guy created a “best selling,” book that only contained a picture of his foot.
The process was simple. He took a picture of his foot, added it to a document, uploaded it to amazon, asked a few of his friends to buy it, and placed it in an obscure category so it would rank number one.
He’s the co-founder of a marketing company that specializes in book launches.
The point of the stunt was to point out the fact that many authors “game the system,” so that they can reach best seller status in a category. Once they receive best seller status (with rankings that are calculated hourly and can quickly disappear) they can screen shot it and proceed to call themselves best selling authors.
Guilty as charged. I was quick to claim bestseller status even though the book only made a few thousand dollars. This definitely made me re-think my strategy going forward and I will work on creating better art.
I understand the purpose of the piece — as authors you should do quality work. Instead of focusing on short term goals you should seek to write a book that does well for decades.
He seemed reminiscent of the times where people were “picked,” by publishers and their work was limited to book stores where discerning readers could choose books of the finest quality.
What he doesn’t mention is the vast number of talented writers who never got picked and who’s work remained in obscurity because of gatekeepers.
The gatekeepers also rejected many popular books initially.
What if Vonnegut had the internet when he first started? He could’ve uploaded Cat’s Cradle directly to kindle — maybe it would’ve gone viral.
What if Andy Weir lived in a gatekeeper dominated world? He wouldn’t have self published The Martian, which became a viral indie hit before going mainstream.
I say, f*** the gatekeepers. As far as the quality of work being put out there — we live in a market driven society. The market decides what’s good. Not critics and elites.
See: Why 50 shades of grey is great literature
See: Why the Hunger Games is the Future of Writing
In a previous post I talked about my experiences writing my first book. It took 90 days total from write to publish (admittedly rushed.) And it wasn’t a literary masterpiece (by any means).
But if I have to go back in time and do it all over again I would. For a few reasons:
A) I finally got the “write a book,” monkey off of my back. Now that I know I can do it I’m not daunted by writing another one.
B) I made money — I made an actual profit from typing words on a keyboard. Pretty cool. And at the time I had zero platform. Nobody knew who I was. Now a small handful of people do. The future looks bright.
C)I met some amazing people in the process — other writers, entrepreneurs, ect.
The market is flooded with books now due to companies like Amazon. This is a good thing. Now everyone has their chance to create and publish with no barriers or excuses.
The gatekeepers are gone for every industry. With a computer, a couple dollars, and a dream — you can become an author, a radio show host, owner of a T.V network, a service business provider, whatever you want.
But you’re your worst gatekeeper. If you can’t get over your fear and do the work you won’t be able to succeed — even in a world without barriers.
Rules For Creatives In A World Without Gatekeepers
#1 — Ship (Even if it sucks)
I asked my favorite writer, James Altucher, if publishing a book every 6 months was a good idea. I was worried about the quality vs. quantity debate.
Here’s what he said: “ Publish every six months and trust me: quantity will turn into quality. Do it.”
Thanks for the vote of confidence, James.
Put your shitty book on kindle and be proud of it. Let the critics whine about the degrading quality of literature in society. You don’t have time to do that. You need to do the work and improve.
Start blogging on platforms like Medium. Open a YouTube channel and start making videos. Take your photos and put them on Instagram.
Each time you ship you build confidence and (hopefully) your work gets better each time.
Sharing poor work is better than sharing no work.
Rule #2 — You Suck!
When you start out you’re just not going to be that good. I’m about 472 hours into the “10,000 hours-to-become-a-master,” practice. Every time I write a blog post I immediately believe it sucks.
But my blog posts now look slightly better than the ones I wrote a year ago. So it goes.
Don’t worry about the relative quality of your work. If you show up and do your best work each time, you’re successful. This is what you measure yourself by. Not the amount of views you get. Not how your work compares to people who’ve been doing it for years.
Rule #3 — Accept the Loop
Here’s how the loop works.
You feel the resistance to doing your work. You wrestle with it, stew in misery, and conclude you’ll never make it as a (writer, photographer, podcaster). You finally bring yourself to do the work. You ship the work. It feels good! You’re proud of completing something. The feeling is ephemeral at best. Then you start over.
The only difference between your favorite professional creative and the vast majority of failures? They continued through the loop long enough to break through and succeed on a large scale. The rest didn’t.
Rule #4 — Be Jealous and Compare Yourself to Others (as little as possible)
It’s going to happen. I’m convinced that all creatives are jealous of the ones higher on the totem pole. I think the jealousy decreases as you rise but it never goes away. That’s okay.
Try to compare yourself to others as little as possible but accept the fact that it’s inevitable.
When ever I’m feeling jealous of another writer I go into their archives.
“Oh, they’ve been writing for eight years. I’ve been writing for one.”
“Oh they have a huge audience now, but their old work wasn’t that popular.”
“Oh. Their first blog post isn’t actually that good. Looks like they had to practice their craft.”
This reminds me of a time where I found an old mixtape Eminem created way way before he was Eminem.
It was awful. Quite possibly the worst rapping I’ve ever heard. What if slim shady decided to quit before he got better?
Each time I get jealous I do my best to remember the person was exactly like me at one point. This doesn’t help much. But it helps.
Rule #5 — Be Open With The Public and Private With Your Peers
Here’s the easiest way to kill your creative career before it starts: tell your friends and family about it.
Tell them you’re going to try to make money as a blogger or interview famous people with nothing more than your mic and a Mac book.
Your friends and family love you and mean well. But they don’t know what they’re talking about. They’ll say things like:
“That seems risky.”
“Do people actually make money doing that?”
“You should get your MBA.”
Ship your work to the public but keep your evil plan to yourself.
How to Kill The Self Help Industry
If everyone took action on their goals and dreams the self-help industry would collapse. Even if you don’t know specifically what to do, you know what to do.
You have to start. You have to do the work. I know it sucks. I know you wish it was easier. I wish it was easier.
But it isn’t. It will take you years to reach a level of prominence. Some people make a big splash in a few short months, but trust me, it won’t be you.
So this is your friendly reminder to get started.
Go.