Show Your Work by Austin Kleon - Notes (Part 2)

This follows the first part of the notes/quotes I took while reading “Share your Work” by Austin Kleon:

• “The impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.” —Annie Dillard
• If you want fans, you have to be a fan first.
• Stop worrying about how many people follow you online and start worrying about the quality of people who follow you. Don’t waste your time reading articles about how to get more followers. Don’t waste time following people online just because you think it’ll get you somewhere. Don’t talk to people you don’t want to talk to, and don’t talk about stuff you don’t want to talk about.
• 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.
• When an audience starts gathering for the work that you’re freely putting into the world, you might eventually want to take the leap of turning them into patrons.
• … my business model is still pretty old-fashioned: I make something and sell it for money. Instead of having a donate now button on my website, I have buy now and hire me buttons.
• [Newsletter]: Be clear about what they can expect, whether you’ll be sending daily, monthly, or infrequent updates. Never ever add someone’s email address to your mailing list without her permission.
• The people who sign up for your list will be some of your biggest supporters, just by the simple fact that they signed up for the potential to be spammed by you.
• You can’t count on success; you can only leave open the possibility for it, and be ready to jump on and take the ride when it comes for you.