Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts

A reality of our culture is that if you or your product has never been covered in the press, there is a risk that people will think you’re a nobody. Unless something is brand-new, it’s very rare that someone or something is both definitive and unknown. That’s why press matters and why it is part of most successful marketing plans.

In my definition, a platform is the combination of the tools, relationships, access, and audience that you have to bear on spreading your creative work—not just once, but over the course of a career.

the better your product is, the better your marketing will be.

It’s worth remembering that Hollywood record books are littered with “holiday blockbusters” that opened huge on Christmas Day only to be surpassed a few short years later (some even sooner) by perennial favorites like Elf and A Christmas Story—movies watched only one month a year that keep chugging along like the proverbial tortoise racing the hare

Almost every industry is facing the same reality, which is why you have to subject yourself to that same scrutiny: Do I have the reach to pull this off? Is my platform big enough for me to launch yet? What investments can I make now that will lengthen my career by strengthening my audience and fan base? No matter what you’re selling, a platform is

Seth Godin explains that “being really good is merely the first step. In order to earn word of mouth, you need to make [your product] safe, fun, and worthwhile to overcome the social hurdles to spread the word.”

The difference between a great work and an idea for a great work is all the sweat, time, effort, and agony that go into engaging that idea and turning it into something real. That difference is not trivial. If great work were easy to produce, a lot more people would do it.

manuscripts to nonexistent caretakers—“kissing it up to God,” to use a Hollywood expression—see every part of the process as their responsibility. They take control of their own fate. Not simply as artists but as makers and managers.

The higher and more exciting standard for every project should force you to ask questions like this: What sacred cows am I slaying? What dominant institution am I displacing? What groups am I disrupting? What people am I pissing off?

masters.” “I do not like the modern school,” he says, expressing his disdain for the popular work of the day (which, as it happens, was early-nineteenth-century Parisian art). To which the sarcastic Monte Cristo replies, “You are quite right, Monsieur. On the whole, they have one great shortcoming, which is that they have not yet had the time to be