Thanks for your constructive feedback. I’m not an EMH fundamentalist. It doesn’t surprise me when people find an edge, and it doesn’t surprise me when possible advancements aren’t developed the instant they are technologically feasible. I just think that if you run the numbers, KK’s post is written to suggest that it’s far easier to make a living as a content creator than as a physician’s assistant, and I think that’s unlikely.
As for the stardom vs “true fans” approach, I don’t actually think my post was saying that one’s better than the other. In fact, I was pointing out that getting 1,000 true fans likely requires getting many times that number of regular fans. I might be wrong here. Getting 1,000 true fans is definitely saner and more likely than becoming a star. But being a star comes with greater rewards. It’s a risk/reward trade off. I don’t know which has the higher expected value.
I’m not super clear on what steps you would take to pursue the “true fans” approach that you would not also take in pursuit of stardom. KK’s post seems mainly of value in reminding content creators that there are tiers of success that can provide you with a good living short of stardom.
I’m not super clear on what steps you would take to pursue the “true fans” approach that you would not also take in pursuit of stardom.
The traditional way to get stardom is not through having direct relationships with your fans but through signing up with big record labels and publishing houses. The strategy that Kevin Kelly advocates is different to the way people archieved stardom before.
I always kind of assumed that content creators would typically need some kind of fan base before they’d be able to get a record or book deal. Maybe I’m wrong about that, though.
It used to be that publishing houses and record labels saw their role as discovering and building up talent.
Now, we have a world where the power of institutions like record labels to make stars is a lot less then it used to and there are more people who have success independently of institutions. In that world success independent of institutions is a signal for the institutions that a person is more likely to have promise.
Getting a book deal reduces the amount of profit you can get per true fan. The people I know personally who make a good living as content creators on the internet likely could get a book deal, but it they make more profits in the blueprint that Kelly lays out then they would if the would go for the book deal.
Additionally, people with expertise but without an established audience can still get book deals if they have a book proposal that the people at the publishing houses find promising.
Thanks for your constructive feedback. I’m not an EMH fundamentalist. It doesn’t surprise me when people find an edge, and it doesn’t surprise me when possible advancements aren’t developed the instant they are technologically feasible. I just think that if you run the numbers, KK’s post is written to suggest that it’s far easier to make a living as a content creator than as a physician’s assistant, and I think that’s unlikely.
As for the stardom vs “true fans” approach, I don’t actually think my post was saying that one’s better than the other. In fact, I was pointing out that getting 1,000 true fans likely requires getting many times that number of regular fans. I might be wrong here. Getting 1,000 true fans is definitely saner and more likely than becoming a star. But being a star comes with greater rewards. It’s a risk/reward trade off. I don’t know which has the higher expected value.
I’m not super clear on what steps you would take to pursue the “true fans” approach that you would not also take in pursuit of stardom. KK’s post seems mainly of value in reminding content creators that there are tiers of success that can provide you with a good living short of stardom.
The traditional way to get stardom is not through having direct relationships with your fans but through signing up with big record labels and publishing houses. The strategy that Kevin Kelly advocates is different to the way people archieved stardom before.
I always kind of assumed that content creators would typically need some kind of fan base before they’d be able to get a record or book deal. Maybe I’m wrong about that, though.
It used to be that publishing houses and record labels saw their role as discovering and building up talent.
Now, we have a world where the power of institutions like record labels to make stars is a lot less then it used to and there are more people who have success independently of institutions. In that world success independent of institutions is a signal for the institutions that a person is more likely to have promise.
Getting a book deal reduces the amount of profit you can get per true fan. The people I know personally who make a good living as content creators on the internet likely could get a book deal, but it they make more profits in the blueprint that Kelly lays out then they would if the would go for the book deal.
Additionally, people with expertise but without an established audience can still get book deals if they have a book proposal that the people at the publishing houses find promising.