My wife and I had a massive garage sale. We were selling all our awesome books, DVDs, and Blurays. I was shocked how many people could pass up 50 cent DVDs and books. People were passing on them simply because they hadn’t heard of or experienced that particular title.
It reminded me have little people are willing to experience new things. And here we are – artists – trying to help people experience something new.
Art is an uphill battle.
How can you hope to win in a world full of people unwilling to try something new?
I have a few ideas:
1. Context
Those 50 cent DVDs would fly off the shelves at the local Walmart or Blockbuster. But a garage sale is the wrong context for that. People don’t associate quality with a garage sale. So they don’t associate quality with my DVDs.
Understanding that art is an uphill battle, we should try to put our art in the right context. That means it will hit the right audience (those looking for DVDs) and be associated with quality (brand name stores).
2. Samples
I think there are way more drug users than people who wanted to try drugs in the first place. But drug dealers give samples. It gets you hooked.
If you want your art to succeed in an environment that fears newness, you’ll have to be willing to give something away for free. How can you offer people a sample of your art?
3. Third Parties
Get an innocent bystander to put their approval on your new art. Or better yet, get an influencer that knows a lot of people.
The point is…if your art is good and you get it to the right people…it spreads. Be willing to bring other people early on so your “new thing” has a chance to spread before you even finish.
It’s uphill. Ultimately, acknowledge that creating anything new will be a challenge. Too many people think their book, their music, their art will become successful overnight. But it won’t. Be willing to fight the battle. It can be won.
Great encouragement!
Great encouragement!