True Fans. But 1,000?

In Kevin Kelly's, "1,000 True Fans" article on kk.org, he explains how independent producers and artists can survive and even thrive over the Internet, and all that is needed to keep their work afloat is 1,000 true fans.

What I liked about this article was what I actually didn't like at all: the angle of the article which made it seem like 1,000 true fans is 1) easy to gain and 2) a necessity for an independent artist's career.

According to Kelly, reeling in that many fans is a way to escape the "long tail." The long tail, he says, "offers no path out of the quiet doldrums of miniscule sales." To me, his advice on how to escape this long tail is as helpful as someone telling me to become famous. One thousand true fans. I've heard it's an accomplishment to find one true friend. If one were to gain that many stable followers, I'd say their career is pretty much set. That's not the beginning––that's the goal.

Unless you want to become the next Oprah Winfrey. Then 1,000 fans would be a healthy start. And who's to say you can't strive for a journalistic career that exceeds the average success? You definitely can. But speaking from a Kevin Kelly perspective, the world of independent media is a "go big or go home" bargain. Or 1,000 fans, as he says, is all you need to "make a living."

Maybe it's the work deserving of the attention that gets it. Kelly gives all of these advertising tips on how to gain and maintain 1,000 true fans. And if you're the kind of artist that doesn't want your creativity to get lost in the business of advertising, you can just hire "a mediator, a manager, a handler, an agent, a galleryist..."

How about we focus on work that we are passionate about and will change the world, not conform to the liking of as many people as possible? Because if your work is worth reading, is worth passing on, is worth talking about, then the fans will multiply themselves. Hopefully without the creator even knowing. 

"I don't know of any creator who is not interested in having a million fans," Kelly said. Yeah, me neither. But I also don't know of any talented, genuine creator that guides his work around his dream of being famous.

The best journalism is the kind that doesn't need an advertiser. And who's to say your career is down the pipes if you don't have "1,000 true fans"? There is plenty of outlets that existed, and plenty still out there, that although couldn't maintain the funds to keep running, changed the world. Those are the newspapers, magazines and works of art talked about today. They also now have incredibly more than 1,000 fans.

But those fans came only after these financially struggling, alternative, unpopular publications ceased. They didn't make a living, but they made history.

Sometimes, that is independent journalism.