Who Have You Irritated Today?

If you consider yourself to be a writer or author of any kind, you are officially in the Idea Expression Business. That means you like to take concepts that exist only in your mind and bring them to life through the words you craft on a computer screen or piece of paper. It's a wonderful creative quest.

But writers can also be sensitive artistic creatures who value the feedback they get from others -- sometimes to their detriment.

It's fine to be aware of what others think of your ideas and story lines. It's okay to be energized by positive feedback. It's good to learn from more experienced writers.

The danger comes when you water down your voice and perspective in an attempt to please everyone. Guess what? You'll never please everyone anyway. And, more often than not, when you try to, you end up pleasing no one.

So, as you write articles, short stories, blog posts, and entire books ...

• Be bold
• Take a stand
• Express your opinion, even if you risk alienated some of your audience
  
• Experiment with writing styles and turns of phrase
• Look for the angle only you can bring to the subject
• Don't be afraid to piss someone off!

Brian Clark wrote about this as it relates to blogging:

You need the courage to alienate the wrong people in order to resonate with the right people. You need to stick to your convictions when people tell you you're wrong simply because your knowledge doesn't mesh with their opinions. Blogging by consensus is a recipe for failure.

Your success will be determined by the execution of your vision. The fact is, if no one hates you, you’re doing something wrong. Trying to please everyone is the goal of mass media. That’s why it sucks.

My pal Scott Ginsberg also addressed this with his post, "If everybody says you're nuts, you just might be onto something."

I've been writing about music marketing and artist empowerment for many years. But only recently have I begun spreading a similar message to authors and independent book publishers. And I bring a lot of my DIY rock & roll attitude with me as I share how I built my full-time publishing business.

Not everyone agrees with me on every issue or idea I express. And that's okay. I don't want to sound like everyone else. I couldn't if I tried.

I'll rarely write about the traditional path to publishing. I'll never write about how hard it is to publish your own book or other doom-and-gloom topics that you can hear in spades from others.

That's not my mindset. So I share what I believe and what's worked for me. Not everyone will agree with me. And you know what? ...

That's just fine with me!

So, who have you irritated today?

-Bob

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