Me vs. Me
The other day on Today, Matt Lauer asked Janet Jackson how she felt about her new CD, Janet 20 Y.O., competing with the likes of Beyonce and Brittany Spears.
Not sure why he threw Brittany in the mix. The last time she was in the news for music was two babies ago.
Still, Janet's answer was a simple, classy, "Well I've been where they are." She went on to say something to the effect that she sees no reason to pattern her style after them because she's traveled that road already.
Translation - These young chicks are patterened after me. The only person I need to compete with is myself.
Smartly, Matt followed up by pointing out that Janet's last CD, Damita Jo, didn't do very "well." To which Janet countered that the CD went platinum.
Touche!
Her CD may not have done as well as a previous Janet CD but it damn sure sold more than a few hundred other artists out there.
And that's what it's about, as an artist/author whatever you're only competing against yourself.
Not to discount the hundreds of others in your field, but it's darn near impossible to focus on how others are doing when the only numbers that matter are your own.
Thank God, the publisher isn't going to come to me and say, "Well, you know you sold 100,000 less than Meg Cabot did last year."
Because they know that if I sell 10,000+ books I'll be doing good for me. A place Meg Cabot has already been...which is why she's not double checking her rearview to see if me or dozens of other debut authors are on her tail.
I've said it many times, I don't see other authors as my competition. We're all in the same exact boat rowing toward our target readers hoping people will like what we've written. Granted, some of us are in row boats and others are in power boats (i.e. more marketing dollars behind them). But we're all striving to reach the shore of Best Seller Island. Or in most cases, Earn Out Your Advance Cay.
Since serious writers release one book a year, and avid readers aren't going to put a moratorium on their book buying as they wait for the next book...we only hope that our book will be the one the readers pick up as they wait for their Old Faithfuls to turn out another one.
The hungrier the reader, the more likely we'll all get a piece of their attention.
Not sure why he threw Brittany in the mix. The last time she was in the news for music was two babies ago.
Still, Janet's answer was a simple, classy, "Well I've been where they are." She went on to say something to the effect that she sees no reason to pattern her style after them because she's traveled that road already.
Translation - These young chicks are patterened after me. The only person I need to compete with is myself.
Smartly, Matt followed up by pointing out that Janet's last CD, Damita Jo, didn't do very "well." To which Janet countered that the CD went platinum.
Touche!
Her CD may not have done as well as a previous Janet CD but it damn sure sold more than a few hundred other artists out there.
And that's what it's about, as an artist/author whatever you're only competing against yourself.
Not to discount the hundreds of others in your field, but it's darn near impossible to focus on how others are doing when the only numbers that matter are your own.
Thank God, the publisher isn't going to come to me and say, "Well, you know you sold 100,000 less than Meg Cabot did last year."
Because they know that if I sell 10,000+ books I'll be doing good for me. A place Meg Cabot has already been...which is why she's not double checking her rearview to see if me or dozens of other debut authors are on her tail.
I've said it many times, I don't see other authors as my competition. We're all in the same exact boat rowing toward our target readers hoping people will like what we've written. Granted, some of us are in row boats and others are in power boats (i.e. more marketing dollars behind them). But we're all striving to reach the shore of Best Seller Island. Or in most cases, Earn Out Your Advance Cay.
Since serious writers release one book a year, and avid readers aren't going to put a moratorium on their book buying as they wait for the next book...we only hope that our book will be the one the readers pick up as they wait for their Old Faithfuls to turn out another one.
The hungrier the reader, the more likely we'll all get a piece of their attention.
posted by Paula at 9:27 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home