I have a few friends left in academia and they are almost always working toward having a book published. Their books are specialized and are generally printed in runs of 2500. I've had four books on photography published and their runs are more than double that. If the book does well, more are printed. If it does poorly they let it die on the vine.
The bottom line for many traditional writers is that their work might only be viewed by a couple thousand people (who originally purchased the books) initially and several hundreds more by way of "pass along".
I recently checked my total ad page views in our "Adsense Metric" and discovered that this series of 588 blogs has had, in two short years, over one million page views. That's an amazing number to me. If you are an ad manager at a big company that probably doesn't even register. But for one guy and the 21st century version of a type writer and a mimeograph machine.......well, I like it.
Steven Pressfield has a new book out. It's about getting things done. He says that everything hinges on delivery. That means finishing the project and putting it in the box and delivering it to the world.
I agree. All the great ideas in the world are nothing unless you deliver them to the audience. Thanks for being my audience.
15 comments:
Congratulations. I've enjoyed reading your blog, even the posts that some people seem "upset" about.
I like what Kirk writes. I've heard most of it before but he writes it up well enough for me to want to read again. He's also accessible. It's easy to take that for granted and I've found especially on the internet people can.
Some of the recent criticism has been accurate and fair enough. But different people have different goals and likes so it's a good idea not to take that sort of thing too seriously. You end up trying to please everybody and end up pleasing nobody.
Success really boils down to about three things. Setting great goals. Having great community relations. But none of that matters if you don't ship. Shipping is everything. How do you do that? Get all your ducks lined up. Then do it.
Quite frankly, I don't care if you are preachy, negative, funny, silly, sarcastic, happy or sad. I like to read your blog, and if you censor yourself, you make everything into a generic blog. If you want to do it, go ahead. My opinion is write for yourself. Of course, if you lose book sales and commissions because of it, then it is prudent to edit yourself. I've edited out a couple of my own blog entries simply because they were far too public and personal.
Kirk,
Congratulations.
As one that just started blogging recently, it boggles the mind to get a million page views. Your recent kind words about my photography brought in a bunch hits that, at least for a few days, made me feel what it is like to have a large audience.
With all the recent challenges in the world, one positive development is how a single person's voice, if compelling enough, can command a huge following around the world.
I will be interested to find out how your shift to "Goodness and Light" Kirk Tuck will affect your views. Though I suspect that this is not that important to you.
Andy
Andy and Friends, As my wife said when I told her about my new, "Goodness and Light" slant......."I give it a week!"
Hahaha - I like Belinda's comments as much as I like this one of yours! How good to see it here.
Keep up the nice work Kirk. I've recently mentioned your second picture in http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2011/02/street-shooting-with-abandon-joy-of.html in an email to my brother as "beauty to die for". And I've learned more from this site than I did from the old Hedgecoe books some 30 years ago.
Thanks, Kirk, for everything. For being you.
This is incredible. You actually have twice the number of comments. It was fun to see whether or not I made the cut but I prefer the open dialog. I like your style of writing don't change to much.
Kirk,
Congrats on passing 1 million, keep it up, really appreciate your insights and unique perspective.
LOL, I can take a week of "Goodness and Light" but not much longer ;-)
Your blog will always be my breakfast
A week of bliss, eh? I'm wondering if I should get paranoid, or honk. Can't be too careful. The innernets a dangerous place.
Thanks for being you? What, are we all suddenly post-modern ironic hipster hippie rottin' tootin' happy snappy pseudo somethings all of a sudden? Aaagh.
No. No. What have we done? Noooooooo.
Ha, seriously. Kirk's great. I like Kirk. He's fun.
ok, so we all come back in a week, then?
Congratulations on the million views. I think this blog, as one of the few that does not just regurgitates info collected elsewhere, deserves it.
Not to take anything away from the achievement, there is, however, a slight inconsistency in comparing book runs and page views. If a book has 200 pages and is read by 2,500 people, that would be, in web metrics, 500,000 page views.
As one of my all-time favorite photographers, B.A. "Tony" King says, "The opportunity of a lifetime is to be yourself."
That has worked for you up to now, Kirk. Don't mess with a winning combination.
Congratulations on the million mark... what an interesting and yet strange milestone.
Whatever you did to the underpinnings, it fixed the issue through the firewall...
I saw "Tuesdays with Morrie" again... that movie always brings me to tears (and I almost never cry at movies), and has a few important lessons in it that can easily be applied to photography - live life fully, honestly, and with love. You capture that so well in the work you do that I'm honored to be one of your "photography" friends.
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