I want to be an author, not an influencer.
Writing has always been a passion of mine. I’ve dreamed of being published author since I could remember. I’ve spent decades studying the art of writing, honing my skills, and developing my voice. Now that I’ve finally pushed through the mental blocks that kept me from completing my first novel, only to run head-first into another obstacle.
Artists have to be influencers too.
I understand that publishing is a business and has been for centuries. There have always been gatekeepers to stop anyone the establishment deems unworthy (Unfortunately, this is often minorities) and investors who only cared about profit. In order to keep producing books, a publishing house needs to generate a profit. In order to generate a profit, they need to sell books. In order to sell books, they need to appeal to the book-buying market. It’s my understanding that many other artist fields work in similar ways. While I understand the importance of marketing (my day-job is marketing, afterall) I still feel that it’s become much wore in recent years. And I blame social media.
Followers now determine marketability
Marketability used to be judged by factors like: genre, tropes, target demographic, and skill. Your personal connections and likability were always factors, but it used to be possible to publish without anyone knowing who you are. Now it’s all about you social media presence. What platforms are you on? How many followers do you have? What’s your audience engagement rate? How often do you post? 20 years ago, we could separate the art from the aritst, but now the artist is the entire brand. Marketing isn’t just part of the job anymore, it’s the entire job. And authors aren’t writers– they’re content creators.
Social Media is drowning creators.
At first, social media was just a perk for fans. it was refreshing to be interact with our favorite authors, artists, and musicians. The marketing potential was always there, but it didn’t feel as intrusive in the early days. Even as brands caught on to the potential, connection still felt like the priority. Then ads and algorithms came along, creating the attention economy. Now, visibility is everything, and everyone is fighting to be seen. No one gets their fifteen minutes of fame anymore; you’re lucky to get fifteen seconds. And you have to fight tooth and nail for that.
Algorithms and AI are killing creativity itself.
If competing with other artists wasn’t already bad enough, algorithms and AI have made it so much worse. The algorithm is a god that punishes and rewards creaters on a whim. It doesn’t care about quality or talent. It only cares about quantity, and that’s what AI does best. To have even the slightest prayer of being seen, they either have to churn out content like the machines they are competing with or cater to the fickle algorithm. When creative output is dictated by souless machines, it’s inevitatble that the creative soul would die too.
So what can we do?
I honestly don’t know. Most advice we get to support small artists and authors is to follow them on social media, but what about the ones who don’t want to be there? What about the writers who want to share their stories without showing their face? The musician who wants to play off-screen? The artist who feels that recording every second of their process interferes with their work? What can we do to support them? Are we all cursed to be content creators too?
Leave a comment