So I got to thinking today while my dog was walking me - Should anyone be published? Can anyone be published? At what point can one call them self an author or artist? What is an artist? If everyone is an artist how can any of us make a living as an artist, author, musician or whatever? With internet tools like: Etsy, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Amazon, iTunes, Pubit, Tumbler, Wordpress, Diviantart, Youtube, Kickstarter, Google, and yes Blogger - anyone can make their art available for consumption and can generate an audience for FREE. Is this good for art? Is this good for artists? and is it good for our consumers? What is the cost of more artists getting more attention than ever before in the history of the world?
Some say the down side is that more mediocre art will be seen than ever before. That the quality of art is being diluted. That if people without "proper" training call themselves artists or authors - the lay person will not know the difference. That the masses will unwittingly consume bad art. That everyone loses because the revolutionaries are storming the Bastille and the established master artists will lose the power of their voice in the coming wave of amateurs.
What do you think?
I don't think things are that much different now as they were 20 years ago -as far as artists having to work super hard to get attention. Rewind the tape and lets go back to 1992 - before all those internet sites were created. I was told that I was crazy to try to become a professional illustrator in '92. The same was true if you wanted to become an actor, musician, photographer, comedian, or gallery painter. Why was it crazy? -because there was so much stinkin competition! The big difference was that there were more gatekeepers than there are today. Reps, agents, companies, publishers, labels, agencies, galleries, etc were the entities that vetted artists for their perception of quality. Sometimes they got it right - sometimes they blew it - like the publishers that told JK Rowling to take a hike.
So now that many of these gatekeepers have lost some of their power - we're seeing artists self publishing all forms of art: books, music, visual art, performing art, etc. I think it's great! I believe that everyone is an artist (sometimes). I believe that most artists feed off of their audience and the feedback can be both encouraging and discouraging - but both are necessary for growth.
I don't think that more artists vying for attention is bad at all - in fact I believe it's a good thing. If originality is taking a known idea and combining it with another idea than I believe that more artist's means more ideas. More ideas breed even more combinations of ideas which means that the quality of art should go up. I see this already happening - I've seen more creative ideas in the last year on Facebook than I've ever seen in my entire life.
To become an accomplished artist takes many years and long hours of practice. In the past the practice was done without much of an audience. I believe that artists can now improve much faster with the exposure they can receive through their network of friends online.
Some worry that their products won't be found in a sea of other products. They better worry. We should all worry enough to make sure our products are DIFFERENT - ORIGINAL - CREATIVE - EXCEPTIONAL - even EXTRAORDINARY or we will never get the attention we seek. But this isn't new either...
Consider all the books that have ever been published in the history of publishing. Google estimates this number at 130 million. How did anyone ever get noticed? ONE HUNDRED THIRTY MEEEELION BOOKS???!!! - YIKES! Most of the good ones got noticed because there are systems in place to help you find what you're looking for. Take Barnes and Noble for instance. By my rough calculations (keep in mind I flunked math) Barnes and Noble Stores carry a few hundred thousand books - much less than 1% of all the books ever published. So B&N acts as a filter for it's consumers - they only carry what they think you will want. In addition those few hundred thousand books aren't overwhelming because they are organized into sections. When you or I walk into a B&N we already know what section(s) we're going to check out that might have a few hundred books to browse...piece of cake - you just found Linchpin by Seth Godin.
The same thing is happening online. Review sites, List sites, retailers, awards, bloggers, etc are tripping over themselves to find the good stuff to bring relevancy to their sites. They want to be able to sell their products and attract advertisers so they have to suggest good products to us in order drive traffic and stay viable.
In the end I think there will be just as many superstars creating works that reach some level of mainstream success and then there will be the rest of us - hoping, dreaming, working our butts off, and having a great time doing what we love.