I have been working for myself for several years running a recruiting business and started writing online to satiate a creative itch. I took Write of Passage earlier this year to kickstart the process. Your work came up with some frequency and this post was recommended to me through the Substack Reads email.
I have been working for myself for several years running a recruiting business and started writing online to satiate a creative itch. I took Write of Passage earlier this year to kickstart the process. Your work came up with some frequency and this post was recommended to me through the Substack Reads email.
I'm not sure this advice is good for most people. Nor do I think it's entirely true. Here's what I mean:
Sure, anyone can "open Microsoft Word and write a book," or create their own comedy special...this has been the case for at least a decade (if not more). But is "if you build it, they will come" such a keen strategy? You obviously know the answer to that and am sure you have written about these challenges at length.
Further, gatekeepers absolutely do exist, they just come in different forms:
1 - Traditional Gatekeepers -- there are fewer of them because of industry consolidation (thanks in part to the internet) and they are increasingly focused on existing IP or driven by motives other than "finding the best work to back." But they're still there.
2 - Social Media Algorithms -- instead of dozens of viable traditional media outlets, we have a handful of social media algorithms. Call them what you want, but these act as digital gatekeepers that need to be fed with great frequency.
3 - Expertise -- the algorithmic gatekeepers reward niche expertise and consistency. And how do you gain expertise? Typically through a top percentile level of knowledge in an area of interest or a hobby. Or through an interesting career.
And for creative work, it's become something of a race to the bottom in terms of quality (just look at the most viewed content on YouTube - literally Mr. Beast putting a Lamborghini through an industrial shredder while he laughs with his friends.)
The issue people face, including genuinely talented people, is the reality that "making it" creatively has become an absolute and total grind. It's not enough to entertain, you must do so with great consistency across multiple platforms. You must "play the internet game."
This can absolutely be done, and there are a lot of folks who have done it. But the reality of the situation is far more complex than "no gatekeepers."
I'll end on this - maybe the old gatekeepers were actually good? For instance, Michael Crichton got his start by writing novels "to pay for furniture and groceries" during his time at medical school and submitting them to publishing houses. If he came about today, he'd probably scrap The Andromeda Strain and instead spend his days posting variations of "5 Tips to Crush the MCAT from a Harvard Med School Student" across social platforms while trying to sell a course.
Scratch that. He'd probably just be a Doctor and we'd all be worse off for it.
I have been working for myself for several years running a recruiting business and started writing online to satiate a creative itch. I took Write of Passage earlier this year to kickstart the process. Your work came up with some frequency and this post was recommended to me through the Substack Reads email.
I'm not sure this advice is good for most people. Nor do I think it's entirely true. Here's what I mean:
Sure, anyone can "open Microsoft Word and write a book," or create their own comedy special...this has been the case for at least a decade (if not more). But is "if you build it, they will come" such a keen strategy? You obviously know the answer to that and am sure you have written about these challenges at length.
Further, gatekeepers absolutely do exist, they just come in different forms:
1 - Traditional Gatekeepers -- there are fewer of them because of industry consolidation (thanks in part to the internet) and they are increasingly focused on existing IP or driven by motives other than "finding the best work to back." But they're still there.
2 - Social Media Algorithms -- instead of dozens of viable traditional media outlets, we have a handful of social media algorithms. Call them what you want, but these act as digital gatekeepers that need to be fed with great frequency.
3 - Expertise -- the algorithmic gatekeepers reward niche expertise and consistency. And how do you gain expertise? Typically through a top percentile level of knowledge in an area of interest or a hobby. Or through an interesting career.
And for creative work, it's become something of a race to the bottom in terms of quality (just look at the most viewed content on YouTube - literally Mr. Beast putting a Lamborghini through an industrial shredder while he laughs with his friends.)
The issue people face, including genuinely talented people, is the reality that "making it" creatively has become an absolute and total grind. It's not enough to entertain, you must do so with great consistency across multiple platforms. You must "play the internet game."
This can absolutely be done, and there are a lot of folks who have done it. But the reality of the situation is far more complex than "no gatekeepers."
I'll end on this - maybe the old gatekeepers were actually good? For instance, Michael Crichton got his start by writing novels "to pay for furniture and groceries" during his time at medical school and submitting them to publishing houses. If he came about today, he'd probably scrap The Andromeda Strain and instead spend his days posting variations of "5 Tips to Crush the MCAT from a Harvard Med School Student" across social platforms while trying to sell a course.
Scratch that. He'd probably just be a Doctor and we'd all be worse off for it.