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An International Thank You
Randomly sold quite a few books in the US this week. Thank you to you orderers. Years ago I broke even from the initial pre-order sales before book launch, so now when you buy a book I actually make a little money, and it all goes to me! Sometimes I can buy groceries off of that small profit, which is no small feat. Plus, I own the intellectual property. True, I didn't make a cushy 30k advance as you do with a publisher. But did I mention that I own my own IP? And for my first book I did whatever I want, i.e. a collection? And I didn't have to put up with any corporate bullshit?
Leave me alone, corporations! I'm writing to my peoples.
I also had a little signing party in Virginia, which was fun. And caffeinated. (A few of us staged that linked snapshot afterward.) It was the first time (during Greyfeather V.O.) that I worked with Wingman Mushy, who recently did the mix on the Distortion short and the first time I worked with Brad, who also came to work on Distortion, DP-ing in both DC and LA. I learned how to publish, promote, sell and ship a book and that was valuable. It also made creating the TSL prints much easier because the shop was already set up.
When Aidmheil sells out, I will think about doing something else in print. Maybe it will surprise you.
More about the book and how to order here.
I want to take a moment today to welcome new Wingmen. This week everyone new is International, from places such as Canada and Sweden. As a point of information, I've found that the project resonates more strongly with Canadians and Europeans. We've had more US press, thus more Americans have had the opportunity to know about the project leading to more US Wingmen. Plus, I'm American, so more people in the US come in contact with me than anywhere else in the world (so far). Otherwise I believe Canada and Europe would be leading for Wingman locations. Not that it's a race: Simply an interesting sociological/cultural point, I think. The largest local Wingman areas remain the LA and DC metro areas.
TSL on the other hand continues to be (behind the LA and DC areas) popular in Russia. Russia? Russia! That film project has received virtually no press at this stage because we aren't promoting it yet. Most of the prints at this point tend to be International sales as well. America is always the market artists want to break into, so why are we so far behind when it comes to taste, art or even new pop trends? Even The Backstreet Boys broke overseas before here! That's why when they were all "Backstreet's back, alright!" We were all like, "WTF? You just got here." Not that that was the only "WTF?" involved with the discovery of the Backstreet Boys, but you get my point. Then I Want it That Way came out and had to stop making fun of them and go to all of their concerts.
Anyway, it is a pleasure to translate a Russian blog about TSL to see what's being said. And by "translating" I mean "badly translating" via an online auto-translator for the lulz. Receiving e-mails in broken English about one's work is also a pleasure. The letters are always kind (and amusing). And lead to the realization of how far behind US students are in terms of learning a second language.
No matter where in the world you are, though, or what language you speak: It's difficult, really, really difficult to be an artist right now because of the Internets, piracy and public perception. Many artists don't talk about it much because they don't want to be caught up being positioned against their fans. There have been some bigger things on the table lately such as digital residuals/the strike, orphan works legislation, the Google books debacle in Germany and so forth. Established artists who have been backed by labels or studios or publishers for years (ex: NIN, Radiohead), well their story is different and that has lead to interesting interactive case studies that cannot be applied to the rest of the creative class. The truth is that the creative class is facing, right now, some tough issues. And they are all labor related. Despite that, and how frustrated I am, it still remains my pleasure to be an artist, and to share with you something that I did independently in my salad days (Aidmheil). So thank you for being you, for being here, and for valuing creatives just as you would your mechanic, your doctor or any other professional providing you with something that fills a need and adds to your life.
Stills are from The Wingmen: Behind the Scenes Video.
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