Fans, Friends And Followers: Building An Audience And A Creative Career In The Digital Age [Paperback]

Scott Kirsner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 18, 2009

An essential guide for filmmakers, musicians, writers, artists, and other creative types. "Fans, Friends & Followers" explores the strategies for cultivating an online fan base that can support your creative career, enabling you to do the work you want to do and make a living at it. Based on dozens of interviews with the artists pioneering new approaches to production, marketing, promotion, collaboration, and distribution, it presents strategies that work - in a straightforward, jargon-free way. Featured artists include YouTube star Michael Buckley; the animators behind JibJab, Homestar Runner, and Red vs. Blue; video artist Ze Frank ("theshow"); comedian Eugene Mirman; singer-songwriters Jill Sobule and Jonathan Coulton; OK Go frontman Damian Kulash; filmmakers M dot Strange ("We Are the Strange") and Curt Ellis ("King Corn"); writers Brunonia Barry ("The Lace Reader") and Lisa Genova ("Still Alice"); and artists Tracy White, Natasha Wescoat, and Dave Kellett.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Scott Kirsner is a journalist and blogger who writes about new ideas and their impact on the world. He edits the blog CinemaTech (http://cinematech.blogspot.com), which explores the way technology is changing the entertainment industry. He is the author of "Inventing the Movies," a technological history of Hollywood published in 2008, and "The Future of Web Video: New Opportunities for Producers, Entrepreneurs, Media Companies and Advertisers," first published in 2006. He writes regularly for Variety and the Boston Globe. Scott's writing has also appeared in the New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Wired, Fast Company, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, BusinessWeek, and Newsweek, among other publications. Scott is one of the founders of the Nantucket Conference on Entrepreneurship and Innovation, held each May. He also speaks and moderates regularly at entertainment industry events, including the Sundance Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the South by Southwest Film Festival. Scott is a graduate of Boston University's College of Communications and the New World School of the Arts, in Miami. He can be reached at [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace (March 18, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1442100745
• ISBN-13: 978-1442100749
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #238,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great overview of DIY culture, March 29, 2009

By 

Charles E. Tryon Jr. (Holly Springs, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fans, Friends And Followers: Building An Audience And A Creative Career In The Digital Age (Paperback)

Scott Kirsner's Fans, Friends, and Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age uses interviews with a number of prominent artists who have been able to forge careers and gain widespread popularity primarily through promotional and distribution tools available online. For those of us doing research on digital cinema, Kirsner's book is a valuable resource, one that illustrates the ways in which content creators are navigating, and sometimes profiting from, what Chris Anderson has described as the "long tail" of digital distribution and what others have described as do-it-yourself (DIY) distribution. While my own research, in Reinventing Cinema (Amazon) , focuses exclusively on filmmakers, Kirsner assembles a number of key figures from what he calls the "era of digital creativity," including musicians, comics artists, visual artists, and novelists, in order to establish or explore how a set of practices have emerged that allow artists to escape the "gatekeepers" of traditional distribution and market themselves. While Kirsner's book is generally optimistic about the potentials of DIY, a number of significant themes surfaced throughout the interviews.

Kirsner knows DIY culture as well as anyone, and he is well-positioned to document what is happening in a variety of digital media, to provide that crucial snapshot of digital DIY practices. He is also aware that what he is providing is just that, a snapshot, pointing out that these practices are far from static and subject to alteration as new artists find new techniques for having their voices heard (and hopefully making a living from it). The book also provides at least some statistics about what opportunities are actually available financially to even the most successful digital artists, making the book a useful guide to all of us interested in the ongoing practices of indie filmmakers, musicians, and artists alike.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must have for small business, October 26, 2009

By 

LAMakeupGirl "Danielle P" (Dallas,TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fans, Friends And Followers: Building An Audience And A Creative Career In The Digital Age (Paperback)

I had the pleasure of seeing Scott speak at a technology seminar. What had inspired me to purchase the book was that he shared a very real world approach to building an online community. By real world, I mean something that required some effort, but was not cost prohibitive. I am not an artist, but I own a small business and realize that small business and art live in someone parallel worlds. Both are creative and typically strapped for finances. To get our message out, we have to be creative. This book gives you simple guidelines and ideas on hoave best to create an audience through the power of the web. It lays out what your audience (customers) are looking for, how they want to be involved, and how best to include them, and FREE resources to do it. If you own a small/midsize/ or even large business, read this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Ideas and Ideas for the New and Coming Age of DIY, June 16, 2009

By 

Jacquelyn E. Turner (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fans, Friends And Followers: Building An Audience And A Creative Career In The Digital Age (Paperback)

I really really enjoyed this book. It is interesting on so many levels--you don't even have to be an independent artist. I have no doubt that "fans," "friends," and "followers" would also find this book very interesting. Within the pages, dozens of artists recount their journeys and trial-and-error experiences with their audiences and the distribution of their art. There are a lot of excellent stories and opinions.

Scott Kirsner has done a great job gathering and inteviewing a well-balanced group of musicians, filmmakers, songwriters, comedians, and visual artists who have used DIY (Do-It-Yourself) methods to engage and inspire their audiences, as well as make a little money. His main argument is that it is possible for an independent artist to earn a living from his or her art, but that it requires a very special and involved relationship with one's audience.

With today's rapidly growing and already overcrowded media industry, it is important that the independent artist understand how to promote and sell their work on the internet. The artists all come from different backgrounds but it is amazing how they all seem to say similar things: there is the obvious point that every artist should have a website and should use social networking sites in some capacity--and then there is advice about how to get fans more involved so that they feel more committed to your work. I recommend this book to anyone who has even the slightest interest in how films, music, video, and art will be distributed in the future because this is it.