Why Creatives Will Win by Thinking Small

I like thinking small. I like thinking of my reader as an individual.

And even if I did this out of sheer stubbornness at first, I’ve come to think this is exactly the strategy for creatives in the current moment.

There are now so many tools for people who want to bypass the system. Almost none of them existed when I started my lonely path as a one-p... See more

• The long tail of the internet has provided a way for sovereign creators
  
  and businesses to ‘
  
  niche at scale
  
  ‘ in ways not possible at any other time in history, fostering unparalleled creativity and innovation;


• The quality of an audience matters;


• Being tiny is mighty;


• Delighting the weird is a superpower;


• When you build a business, you’re building a new

... See more

• The long tail of the internet has provided a way for sovereign creators
  
  and businesses to ‘
  
  niche at scale
  
  ‘ in ways not possible at any other time in history, fostering unparalleled creativity and innovation;


• The quality of an audience matters;


• Being tiny is mighty;


• Delighting the weird is a superpower;


• When you build a business, you’re building a new

... See more

The ability to build your own audience on your own terms is killing gatekeepers everywhere

But it doesn’t feel too early to ask what might happen in a world where artists keep more or even most of the value that they create. This is personally relevant to me, of course, as a creative type who also stepped away from a “major” — a staff job at a big publication — in favor of selling my work directly to readers. But the larger cultural cons... See more