Sixty People

Finished reading Dan Blank’s Be The Gateway last night. Immediately flagged it as a book to re-read and annotate when I’ve got a little more time up my sleeve, as it’s one of the more clear-headed tomes out there about art and being on the internet.

One of the more resonant moments: Blank is talking about working with artists/writers get down on having a small email list, or number of social media followers, and immediately contextualises it against his experience working as a young artist in the nineties:

Having had sixty people validate this work would have made a huge difference in my quest to stop dabbling and really try to share my work in a bigger way. Having a single person who encouraged me would have meant the world to me. Sixty would have made me double down on my art, instead of letting it languish.

In these years, I tried many other creative projects as well. I had a band, I became a photographer, and I wrote poetry. All if it is mixed in those same cardboard boxes up in the attic. Of course, these acts lead to me honing my skills, and meeting an amazing array of collaborators. These early failures made me appreciate the value of what it means to connect with a single person who appreciates your creative work, hence this very book that you are reading.

But still, I would have loved to have had sixty followers for this work. To look out onto an audience of sixty people who cared. To have had sixty people waiting for my next painting.

Blank, Dan. Be the Gateway: A Practical Guide to Sharing Your Creative Work and Engaging an Audience (p. 138).

In a world where quantity of engagement tends to drive all the conversations around social media and author platform, it’s good to have the reminder that those who read are people who have invested time and attention in what you do.