An illustrated guide to sharing your creative process and getting noticed without bragging
Ten ways to share your creativity
This short, illustrated book by the author of Steal Like an Artist offers ten simple principles for sharing your work and your creative process with the world. Instead of self-promotion, Austin Kleon argues for generosity: showing what you are working on, how you do it and what inspires you, so that people who care about the same things can find you.
Who will enjoy it
Artists, writers, designers, makers and anyone who does creative work and wants to share it without feeling like a show-off.
What you will get
A short, friendly and practical guide that encourages creative people to share their process generously and build an audience by being open and helpful.
Show Your Work! Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Self-help · Creativity · Sharing work · Online audience
Length
224 pages · ≈ 7 h
More about this book
Each short chapter presents one idea. Kleon suggests that you do not need to be a genius to be part of a creative community, that sharing your process is often more interesting than the finished product, and that posting something small every day adds up over time. He encourages readers to share their influences, tell good stories about their work and teach what they know, since teaching others often brings more attention, not less.
Later chapters cover how to avoid becoming a spammer, how to handle criticism and trolls, why it is fine to earn money from your work, and how to keep going through the ups and downs of a creative career. The book is full of hand-drawn illustrations, collages, quotations and examples from artists, writers and musicians, and it can be read in an hour or two. Some advice about online platforms will feel familiar today, but the underlying ideas about generosity and consistency remain useful.
Encouraging, practical and easy to dip into, a book to keep on the desk for a quick boost. About 224 pages in the Workman paperback.
Steal Like an Artist
Big Magic
Bird by Bird
Keep Going
The War of Art
You Are a Badass
How to Get Rich
The 4-Hour Workweek
How to Live on 24 Hours a Day
Unfu*k Yourself
Linchpin
The Artist's Way