La Bene Vita

Standing out from the crowd...

...takes work. Time. Effort. Or possibly, stupidity, if "notoriety" is an acceptable form of fame for you (I'm thinking of Lindsay Lohan, here.)

If you want to stand out - as a business, as a brand, as an author - you have to work at it constantly. You're forgettable, unless you make yourself unforgettable. "Forgettable" sounds like an insult - but why should it be? It only means that you're equal to the thousands of people living around you. So it's not an insult, but it certainly won't sell you any books (or records, or music lessons, etc.)

I used to look at farms and think, wow, those dudes (sexist, I know, and my apologies to any female farmer readers) must be so disciplined. If they miss any of their deadlines - plow, plant, cultivate, harvest - their whole entire year tanks. But after two years of self-employment, I realize that applies to any business. It hit me on Friday, when I sang at Senor Patron thinking, I hope they advertised the hell out of Cinco de Mayo, because it's the biggest business day of the year for a Mexican restaurant. If they miss it, they don't get to do it again until next year. It's the same with my business. We're seasonal, so we only have so much time to advertise for back-to-school, Christmas, summer camps, parties, events. If we don't start early enough, we miss opportunities, and business tanks.

But here's the thing - the school won't go completely under if we miss a deadline or two. It just doesn't grow as fast as it could. Mexican restaurants sell food and beer and margaritas the other 364 days of the year. Farmers successfully plow/plant/cultivate/harvest the other nine fields if they didn't quite get to the tenth. And we all make it to another year and try again.

So it's not as black and white as I used to think, and neither is author success. Some authors might make millions on a book, then disappear for years (anyone know what Harper Lee or JD Salinger are doing these days?) Some authors might "just" make a thousand. Some might lose money and gain only experience. Popularity yields sales, and it takes effort to maintain popularity. Not just effort - constant effort. I recently saw Bobcat Goldwaith (the Police Academy comedian with the weird voice) do a stand-up routine and joke that he was doing it because he ran out of money.

It's constant effort, and it's all relative. To whom do you compare yourself? I looked up Stephanie Meyer's Klout score (because I'm so fascinated by my own popularity) and discovered that I have more Klout than she (that's Klout with a "K," just to clarify.) Do I believe I'm more popular than Stephanie Meyer? Well, that depends on whom you ask. Sammy, my yorkie, definitely likes me better than Meyer. Keith, my boyfriend, also likes me better - he's not into books, let alone vampire books. Many young music students in my studio love the Twilight series, but when asked if they liked me better or Meyer, they might have a hard time deciding, because they know me personally and look up to me. Some random person in Wyoming who has no idea who I am probably likes Meyer better, even if they don't read or like vampires. To the vast population of tweens and teens across America, I'm just "Michelle who?"

Meanwhile, I started an experiment on Facebook with a false account (shh, don't tell anyone.) I discovered a HUGE network of authors obviously looking to stand out via superior friend counts, because they all accepted me without question. My false account friend count shot past that of my legit account, which I've had for years, in about a month. Among all these author friends, all of whom have huge friend counts, pretty much none of them stand out. They all seem like a bunch of authors to me. I can say that the ones who post most often are the ones I would probably recognize in a lineup (of names, not faces.)

The point of all this: Sales are better when you stand out from the crowd. Standing out is temporary, unless you apply constant effort to maintain your popularity. In most businesses, not the least of which is writing, popularity is branding and branding yields sales. Work hard, and you will be rewarded.