Building Online Fan Bases--Scott Kirsner's Book Hits the Airwaves

Just out this month: Fans, Friends & Followers, a book about how creatives can build audiences for their work online while creating sustainable business models for themselves.  Kirsner, editor of CinemaTech, falls under the "guru" category when it comes to this stuff, and in his new book he presents some strategies through interviews and encounters with various artists who are (digitally) making a shekel or two from their works.  For as we know, for the most part in this day and age, the onus of survival and sustainability rests upon the shoulders of the musician, filmmaker, artist, writer, etc.

Kirsner's book is based on dozens of interviews with some of the artists pioneering new approaches to production, marketing, promotion, collaboration, and distribution on the Web.

The book features some new tools, techniques, and business models, along with thirty artist interviews, which include YouTube star Michael Buckley ("What the Buck"); the animators behind JibJab, Homestar Runner, and Red vs. Blue; video artist Ze Frank (“The Show”); comedian Eugene Mirman; singer-songwriters Jill Sobule and Jonathan Coulton; Damian Kulash of OK Go; filmmakers Robert Greenwald (Iraq for Sale) and Curt Ellis (King Corn); writers Brunonia Barry (The Lace Reader) and Lisa Genova (Still Alice); and artists Natasha Wescoat, and Dave Kellett.

The paperback is priced at $15.95; you can also purchase it as an E-book for $12.00 (it's 181 pages so you might want to have it on your bookshelf for reference).  It's available at Amazon.com, or you can purchase it directly from Kirsner's site by clicking here.  You will also be able to have access to a 35-page preview.

Comments

[Scott Kirsner]

Pamela - thanks for the post!