Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

Fans, Friends and Followers by Scott Kirsner is a three part book about building and monetizing an online fan base.

In the first part, Scott lays out the "new rules" of building an audience such as "Be remarkable and make remarkable stuff", "Understand the power of the link" and "Help people learn to do what you do". While artists new to social media may find this section insightful, this section is just a reminder of what the rest of us should already know. After reading Seth Godin and other online thought leaders for the past few years I found myself alternating between a state of "oh yeah, I forgot about that" and nodding along impatiently waiting to get to some new secret formula.

But a secret formula to get a large following quickly isn't the point of the book, and thankfully so. The real value of this book is in part two, where Scott interviews 30 creators from diverse fields such as singing, film production and comedy who have succeeded in building an online following (and in most cases, a monetary living) for their work. I found myself getting more ideas from creators that had nothing to do with comedy than I did from the comedians, and I feel this sort of "cross-pollination of ideas" will hold true no matter your medium.

While the interviews were very insightful, I would have liked to read interviews from the following creators who have built a huge online following: Tucker Max, Hugh McLeod, Aaron Karo and Dane Cook. (Whether you love or hate Dane, he has always been way ahead of every other comic on technology and interacting with his fans.)

In the third and final part, Scott provides a quick reference guide for getting started on using social media and the internet to one's advantage. While you won't really read this section, it will be a handy reference five months down the line when you decide you're not going to post your new joke until you raise $50 and you want to find out which site can help you implement that technology.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to any creator or blogger who is looking to establish or increase their online presence. Whether new to the internet or an experienced veteran, the people and ideas in this book will get you thinking about your audience from a new perspective. Be warned, there is no trick or quick way to build a following, it takes time, but Scott's book will help you develop a more coherent strategy for the road ahead.

(Full Disclosure: As a comedy blogger, I was received a free preview copy of this book. I don't think that influenced my opinion as it's always easier to write a negative review than a positive review, but I thought you should know.)

This could be a life changing book. I started reading it at 9:00 pm and was still reading it when the sun was coming up. For anyone looking for a way to make money from their art online, this book seems to crack the code. The interviews in this book are inspiring, and the resources at the end of the book alone are worth the price.

In a nice Marshal MeLuhanesque marriage of content and medium, the book can be bought as a traditional book that gets shipped to you in a few days or a cheaper PDF download that you get instantly. I couldn't wait, so I opted for the download.

This book will be looked at in the future as a visionary pioneering work.

I am going to try out the techniques in Fans, Friends, and Followers and see if I can better monetize my animation, music, and upcoming graphic novel on my website [...]

Thank you Scott Kirsner
[...]

Kirsner demonstrates how much individuals can do to elevate their personal brand these days for very little money. Fans, Friends And Followers is packed with useful information about how to create a following online and possibly quit your day job. Kirsner did his homework, conducting dozens of conversations with successful artists who have created enthusiastic followings and featuring their words in a section of first-person narratives interviews that make up the majority of the book. He distills their experiences into 35 pages of advice about how to maximize your search visibility, use low-cost promotional channels and distribute products cheaply.

Scott Kirsner's book should be on every college and university professor's reading list for both undergrad and grad students in journalism, film and new media. "Friends, Fans and Followers..." is filled with useful and practical information on using the internet for marketing and outreach. Scott has done pioneering and dogged research and has interviewed over 30 pioneers and innovators who have had successful outreach campaigns, and he lets readers know the nuts and bolts of their successes.

I'm an independent documentary filmmaker, and six months ago I started to write a blog about my documentary film-in-progress, "Teshuva (Return", [...]. However, up until a week ago, I was timid. I only sent it out to my close friends and family and my synagogue's listserv. Since reading Scott's book, I became emboldened to get my blog out there and ask others to forward it on, and so far, in less than a week, I've had great responses from people, not only who are interested in my film's topic, but who can help gain more exposure for the film. I barely started my outreach campaign!

I thank Scott for his invaluable tips and being the catalyst for me to overcome my timidness and reach out to help form an audience, community and perhaps even get more funding for my doc film!

"Friends, Fans and Followers..." is not just for those in the creative arts, it's for anyone or any organization who wants to use the internet for outreach, marketing, build a community, create dialogue and gain exposure.

In "Fans, Friends, and Followers," Variety columnist and CinemaTech blogger Scott Kirsner tackles one of the key issues facing contemporary creative artists: how to build an audience and generate revenue to support their work.

New distribution channels for creative works largely bypass the traditional gatekeepers between artist and audience -- the A&R rep, the book publisher, the film distributor. But the flood of content and the proliferation of distribution options make it increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd. Since many of the current distribution methods provide exposure but not significant revenue, finding a business model to fund artistic development is even more challenging.

Kirsner's "Fans, Friends, and Followers" explores these issues from two perspectives.

The majority of the book consists of interviews with creative professionals who describe how they use the Internet to connect with fans and distribute their work. The artists profiled cover a wide range of endeavors -- film, music, writing, and even comedy and magic.

The book's set of thirty interviews is framed by sections offering practical advice for creative artists. The opening chapter, "The New Rules," is a mini-handbook for creative professionals looking to grow an audience. The final sections -- "Exploring the New Business Models," "Power Tools for Audience Building," and "Supplemental Reading" -- provide additional suggestions and pointers to resources.

Of the interviews that comprise the body of the work, of particular interest are those that describe effective monetization schemes. Using email, MySpace, and Twitter to reach out to fans is fairly routine these days. Less commonplace are the techniques to make fans active participants in the creative process in a way that provides artists with significant monetary backing. Building a fan base is one thing; establishing one that generates enough revenue to sustain your work is a more difficult challenge.

For creative artists "Fans, Friends, and Followers" provides insightful case studies and valuable techniques for growing an audience and finding ways to make a sustainable business from artistic expression.

Pros: Mr. Kirsner lays down the foundation for an inspirational and passionate adventure into the Digital Age's internet based livelihood and does so in a very readable and entertaining fashion. The sheer amount of personal stories from the "it crowd" of the Digital Age is awesome enough. However, the real content of their stories is where the value is at. Getting a closer view of how these folks did what they do, did it passionately, and it just happened to make a living for them is highly inspiring to me. Some VERY good lessons to learn from this content. Excellent resources at the end of the book.

Cons: Not a whole lot of analysis going on as a vast majority of the book is interview / anecdote. The responsibility is on the reader to draw conclusions and see how the lessons learned could impact their lives. I don't view this as a bad aspect, but I could see how some readers (that are looking for concrete answers) would.

Assessment: Definitely worth buying and adding to the library.

This is a great book. It is packed with wonderful nuggets of "thinking outside the box" suggestions. I would recommend this to anyone who is trying to make a go on your own.