2012 in Review: Self-Promotion Spells Success! | Britannica Blog

Since 1938 Britannica?s annual Book of the Year has offered in-depth coverage of the events of the previous year. While the book won?t appear in print for several months, some of its outstanding content is already available online. This article, by Britannica research editor John M. Cunningham, is a sample of what you?ll find.

Self-Promotion Spells Success!

Not too many years prior to 2012, the notion that one could achieve success and even stardom in the creative industries through self-promotion was unrealistic. The way the system generally worked was that the writers, musicians, and other ?talent? who created works of art and entertainment were at the mercy of agents and executives who decided which products were worth supporting and selling. Success, therefore, was often dependent on following established rules, and the paths to fame were limited. Avenues for going it alone, such as vanity and private presses, rarely paid significant commercial dividends. During the 21st century, however, the Internet has profoundly unsettled many traditional industry practices. With expanded access to fans and financiers alike, creative types can more easily negotiate the system and take greater control of their own careers.

British pop singer Adele, whose album 21 topped charts worldwide in 2011, demonstrates her vocal prowess at a concert in Boston on May 15 of that year. Credit: Robert E. Klein/AP

Operating Within the System

For an amateur singer, a great set of pipes and a dazzling smile are seldom enough to capture the attention of the record industry. That is why so many performers move to Los Angeles or Nashville in the hopes of finding opportunities to be discovered. For two of the most famous pop singers in the world, however, all it took was putting a few songs online. British vocalist Adele, whose album 21 has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, was signed by XL Recordings in 2006 after the label spotted some demos posted on her behalf on the social networking Web site MySpace. Similarly, Canadian teen sensation Justin Bieber owes his megafame not to the Disney assembly line but to a batch of homemade YouTube?videos that caught the eye of a well-connected music promoter. In both cases the democratic nature of the Internet allowed the performers to attract industry notice without expending much effort, and Bieber especially was able to build his brand online before he sold a single album.

Pop musician and tween idol Justin Bieber sings for a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Aug. 31, 2010. Credit: Evan Agostini/AP

Another route to a conventional industry arrangement, it seems, is to exploit new media so effectively that it becomes impossible to be ignored by the old. That was the case for American author Amanda Hocking, who in 2010, having received countless rejection letters from publishing houses, began self-publishing her ?paranormal romance? novels as e-books for Amazon.com?s Kindle device. Shrewdly pricing her titles at discount rates, she became an out-of-nowhere millionaire and was eventually able to ink a contract with St. Martin?s Press. (Wake, the first book in her Watersong series, was printed on paper in 2012.) Meanwhile, a fan-fiction Web site provided a platform for British writer E.L. James to share her erotically charged stories with a community of thousands. Their popularity led to the publication of James?s Fifty Shades of Grey, first by a small Australian press in 2011 and then, as demand skyrocketed, by mainstream publishers as well. The novel was swiftly followed in 2012 by two best-selling sequels.

For some people the problem is not capturing industry interest but rather maintaining it. Many up-and-coming musicians, for instance, sign contracts with major record labels only to have their careers put on hold as the label undergoes a shift in personnel or priorities. When rhythm-and-blues singer-songwriter Frank Ocean found himself in such a predicament in early 2011, he decided to post the entirety of his debut album, Nostalgia, Ultra., on his Tumblr blog. The buzz surrounding the digital release forced Ocean?s label, Def Jam, to pay attention, and in 2012 it issued his follow-up, Channel Orange, to much acclaim.

Digital media also offer opportunities for those who have already enjoyed some success to push themselves beyond the roles into which they have been pigeonholed. British author Stephen Leather had published thriller novels via conventional means for more than 20 years before turning to the e-book market in 2010 as a way of self-distributing works that his publisher had turned down, in part because they fell outside his usual genre. Beyond providing him with a measure of creative freedom, the gambit established a lucrative sideline. For her part, American model Kate Upton had found steady work in various print campaigns, including the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, before a video that captured her spontaneously dancing in the stands of a basketball game went viral on the Internet in 2011. The 19-year-old bombshell quickly leveraged her newfound celebrity into a reputation as a versatile supermodel, with industry insiders speculating that she could soon even break into high fashion.

Doing It Yourself (D.I.Y.)

It is clear that for many talented people, participating in the traditional system makes sense. After some fans accused Hocking of ?selling out? by signing with St. Martin?s, she noted that she wanted to reach potential fans who did not own e-readers?and also that wearing multiple hats (writer, editor, and publicist) had become exhausting. Others, however, have discovered that embracing the system as a whole is no longer a necessity.

Although record labels can do a great deal to promote new artists and help them develop their fan base, such efforts are not as crucial for already-popular veterans. That is in part what drove arena-filling British art-rock band Radiohead to abandon its label and self-release In Rainbows (2007) as a ?pay what you wish? download on its Web site. Since then a number of other high-profile musicians have embarked on similar schemes, either distributing entire albums for free online (e.g., Nine Inch Nails) or setting up their own record companies (e.g., Dolly Parton). Recently, even comedians have followed suit. In 2011 American comic auteur Louis C.K. allowed fans to purchase his latest stand-up special as a digital video exclusively through his Web site. Offering the content at the remarkably low price of five dollars, he grossed $1 million within two weeks, and in June 2012 he successfully used the same direct model to sell affordable tickets to his live performances.

Obviously, part of what makes such experiments work is that established and recognizable artists can usually risk whatever production costs they accrue and can rely on a vast network of fans to help promote the project. However, even some lesser-known creative professionals are finding that they can survive on an independent (or at least a semi-independent) basis. For instance, Web sites such as Etsy and Saatchi Online (owned by the London-based Saatchi Gallery) provide self-representing visual artists and craft makers with highly visible platforms to display and sell their work. Etsy?s services have proved sufficiently fruitful that a regular feature on its blog, titled ?Quit Your Day Job,? spotlights members who have been able to earn a living through the site. As well, Kickstarter and other ?crowdfunding? sites make it easier for creative people to solicit and raise money for their projects.

Teenager Tavi Gevinson, whose blog Style Rookie became a popular destination for fashion tips, secured a front-row spot at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in September 2009. Credit: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

Perhaps the easiest way to achieve stardom on one?s own is through blogging, as celebrity-gossip king Perez Hilton can attest. While Hilton attracted a following by engaging in rampant snark, Tavi Gevinson, who started her Style Rookie blog in 2008 as an 11-year-old in suburban Chicago, drew in readers with an adolescent enthusiasm for fashion and the smart, eccentric corners of pop culture. Inspired by the hip 1990s magazine Sassy, she soon sought to launch a publication of her own, in collaboration with media doyenne (and Sassy founder) Jane Pratt. After determining that the involvement of Pratt?s media company would restrict her control, however, Gevinson severed ties, and her monthly Web magazine Rookie, which she owned in full, debuted in 2011 to no shortage of praise. With its editor still only in high school, the intelligent independent site might well represent a new paradigm for the creative class.

Source: http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2012/11/2012-year-in-review-self-promotion-spells-success/

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