Show Your Work by Austin Kleon — Book Summary and Notes
Share Your Creativity: Provide value for a long time and expect nothing in return. Share your thoughts, your process and your work online periodically, no matter how small.
Share Your Creativity
- Provide value for a long time and expect nothing in return.
- Share your thoughts, your process and your work online, no matter how small.
- By sharing your work online, you’ll attract an audience of people with similar interests for fellowship, feedback, and patronage.
"For Artists, the great problem to solve is how to get oneself noticed." — Honoré De Balzac
Show Your Work!
10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered By Austin Kleon
1. You don't have to be a genius
Find your Scenius
A scienius is a "a whole scene of people supporting each other, looking at each other's working, copying from each other, stealing ideas, and contributing ideas."
Becoming an Amateur
The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something. Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing.
Make a commitment to learning it in front of others. Sharing what you love and the people who love the same things will come to you.
2. Think Process, Not Product
Take People Behind the Scenes
Audiences not only want to stumble across great work, but they want to be a part of the creative process. By sharing our approach, we allow the possibility of people having an ongoing connection with our work, which helps us move more of our product.
Become a Documentarian of What You Do
Take photos of your work at different stages in your process. Shoot a video. Record your thoughts in a reflective journal. When you are ready to share, you will have a surplus of materials.
Methods of Documentation
- Drawings
- Plans
- Sketches
- Interviews
- Audio
- Photographs
- Video
- Journals
- Drafts
- Prototypes
- Diagrams
- Notes
- Inspiration
- Scrapbooks
- Stories
- Collections
3. Sharing something small everyday
The Daily Dispatch
"What are you working on right now?"
People who have built sharing into their routine are taking advantage of the network instead of wasting their time "networking".
Early Stage: Share your inspirations
Middle Stage: Share your drafts
Final Stages: What have you learned?
LinkedIn: Businesspeople
Twitter: Writers
Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr: Visual Artists
No one can consistently predict what works best or share. Share your work and get constant feedback from your audience. “Work while the world is sleeping, and share while the world is at work.”
The "So What?" Test
Stock and Flow
"Stock and flow" is an economic concept that writer Robin Sloan has adapted into a metaphor for media. Flow is the feed — the stream of daily updates that remind people you exist, and Stock is the durable content — the work your produce that remains relevant in the long term.
4. Open Up your Cabinet of Curiosities
Share your influences — They give a clue to people who you are and what you do
Credit other people's work — Attribution: Give context for what you're sharing (hyperlink)
When you share your taste and your influences, be open and honest. Don't think about editing it too much. It is the best way to connect with people who share similar interests.
5. Tell Good Stories
The stories you tell significantly impact how people perceive and interpret your work. To become more effective in sharing, you need to become a storyteller. When you open up to someone, don't think of it as integration; recognize it's an opportunity to connect with someone.
6. Teach What you Know
The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it to others. Your work is "a free education that goes on for a lifetime."
When you teach someone, it generates more interest in your work as people feel closer to you. Not to mention, you receive an education in return.
"Make people better at something they want to be better at."
— Kathy Sierra
7. Don't Turn into Human Spam
"If you want fans, you have to be a fan first... If you’re only pointing to your own stuff online, you’re doing it wrong. You have to be a connector." — Austin Kleon
If you want to be a writer, you have to be a reader first.
If you want more followers, you have to be someone worth following.
The Vampire Test
“Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it”
— Derek Sivers
8. Learn To Take a Punch
"When you put your work out into the world, you have to be ready for the good, the bad, and the ugly." — Austin Kleon
The more people come across your work, the more criticism you'll face. However, remember that for every hate comment, there are hundreds more positive comments.
"The trick is not caring what everybody thinks of you and just caring about what the RIGHT people think of you." — Brain Michael Bendis
9. Sell Out
When people are asked to get out their wallets, you find out how much they value what you do. Be careful about selling the work you love; it is a leap you want to take when you are confident it is truly worth something.
Keep a Mailing List
Build your list and treat it with respect. It will come in handy whenever you have something remarkable to sell or share.
10. Stick Around
Don't Quit—Keep Sharing Your Work.
Share Your Creativity
- Provide value for a long time and expect nothing in return.
- Share your thoughts, your process and your work online, no matter how small.
- By sharing your work online, you’ll attract an audience of people with similar interests for fellowship, feedback, and patronage.