Another 1,000 Fans Success Story

Yesterday I talked about the 1,000 True Fans essay. Then I shared the story of how I've put that theory into self-publishing my CorelDRAW Unleashed books. Today I want to share the story of a band who can count me as one of their 1,000 True Fans and how they have done well without a major music label.

The band we're going to talk about is Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers. They started out as The Refreshments and their debut CD, Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy, was a big hit with fans. The second CD, The Bottle & Fresh Horses, didn't sell very well and the band felt the marketing by their label was to blame. If you've seen the King of the Hill TV show, you are familiar with The Refreshments as they did the theme song.

After those first two CDs, the band changed their name to Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers and they have put out their own music since then. The third CD since the name change, Americano, was their best in the opinion of many fans. In fact, the CD includes a DVD of them making the music. When it comes time for some of their concerts, they promote them and sell tickets via PayPal. By taking out the middlemen, the money goes directly to the band. I've been to several of their concerts and they are a blast.

Already, you can see they've built a nice fan base, sold them music and concerts and done quite well. Which brings us to their latest batch of music. Early in 2008 they rented a house in Mexico to be their temporary recording studio. They planned on recording eight songs in eight days and called the sessions Turbo Ocho. Each day a short video was posted of the previous day's recording. At the end of the sessions, they put on a concert for 500 of their fans where the new songs were debuted. Unfortunately I missed that concert.

Now they are about to release a new CD with these new songs. But before they do that, they are selling them online to their fans. The price? Whatever you want to pay! Some of the fans will pay a lot to get the songs right away and there will probably be some who don't pay at all. Admittedly I paid a lower price as I plan on buying the CD (with accompanying DVD) as soon as it is available. If you want to check out their music, this is a great way to give it a try.

Obviously most of your are in the business of creating artwork, not music. I just wanted to pass along this story as it may give you ideas on how you can build your own network of fans for your artwork. I wish you the best of luck!

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Do You Have 1,000 True Fans?

Many of you create some sort of artwork as a way to make a living. If you are not already doing this, you have a desire to make a living from it.

I read a really good blog post entitled 1,000 True Fans that anyone creating "artwork" for sale should read. The idea is that you don't need a bestseller to make a very good living, you simply need 1,000 true fans. A number of good examples are cited and I'm sure you will get some inspiration from it.

I'll add my story to this. I wrote six books for major publishers. Isn't the dream of every writer to get picked up by a major publisher? Well, it was good for a while, but it certainly wasn't any way to make a living. I got a measly royalty payment for each copy of the book sold. So while there were a much larger number of copies sold, the amount of money that filtered down to me wasn't so great. Finally I told the publisher that I couldn't do it any more.

It took me a few years to develop a book I could self-publish. CorelDRAW 12 Unleashed was the first version. It was good and it sold well. Heck, it sold more than I had initially projected. While it sold only a small percentage of what the "major publishers" sold, it was much more profitable that any of the books they published. I was proudest that the book I published was a more complete learning tool than what the "major publishers" produced with their large staffs.

With Corel's development cycle between versions of two years, I had time to build upon CorelDRAW 12 Unleashed and give the book even more of what "true fans" want.
CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed had more information (page, movies) and I even created the special DVD-ROM edition as a way to provide more for those who wanted to spend a little bit more. It sold even better than CorelDRAW 12 Unleashed, yet still only a fraction of what the "major publisher" sold.

Now I'm nearing the finish line of CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed. I've taken what I've learned from the first two books and providing even more of what the "fans" want. I don't know what the sales will bring, but I'm guessing that it will sell even better than the previous books. Yet it will never approach the numbers of the "major publisher".

A funny thing happened not too long ago. I got a call from a "major publisher". They wanted me to write a book on CorelDRAW X4 for them. I politely told them that I'd been self-publishing and that I was very happy with this. They suggested I could write two books, one for them and one that I self-publish. This is physically impossible since it is all-consuming just to write a single book. I told them that my profits for my self-published books far exceeded what I got for my "major publisher" books. The "major publisher" still didn't understand why I didn't want to write a book for them.

In the music industry, the big publishers are struggling to change with digital music. From my conversation with a "major book publisher", it was clear that they didn't get it either.

So for all of you creatives working for yourself, I can only agree with the 1,000 True Fans theory! Put out some great work, build your fanbase and you can do it alone!

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