I recently read Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. It talks about the creative life and highlights 10 ways to find your audience by sharing your work and progress.
Here are some gems from the book that I thought I would share with you:
When she was young and starting out, Patti Smith got this advice from William Burroughs: “Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises. Don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful. Be concerned with doing good work . . . and if you can build a good name, eventually that name will be its own currency.”
Don’t worry about everything you post being perfect. Science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon once said that 90 percent of everything is crap. The same is true of our own work. The trouble is, we don’t always know what’s good and what sucks. That’s why it’s important to get things in front of others and see how they react.
Just do the work that’s in front of you, and when it’s finished, ask yourself what you missed, what you could’ve done better, or what you couldn’t get to, and jump right into the next project.
Make stuff you love and talk about stuff you love and you’ll attract people who love that kind of stuff. It’s that simple.
If you spend your life avoiding vulnerability, you and your work will never truly connect with other people.
Share what you love, and the people who love the same things will find you.
I also wrote a a blog post about the author’s other book, Steal Like An Artist.