In the old days, somebody writing stories or rock songs about "apocalyptic daydreams of six-legged robotic horses," would toil in obscurity.
Thanks to the lo-fi magic of MySpace, Chris Eaton can keep his novel The Grammar Architect and his music from his band, Rock Plaza Central all in one place. And it has never been easier to find his audience--his song "my children be joyful" has been listened to almost 11 thousand times on his MySpace page.
This is the penultimate installment of my interview with Eaton, part of my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a serialized set of weekly interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing...
Jason Boog:
You've built this wonderful reading and listening community through the web. How did you find all these people interested in your quirky breed of music and writing? Any advice for writers looking to find their own audience on the web? Continue reading...
Not sure. I guess people have been finding us.
In the end, I think you just have to make something you believe in and get it out there. I'm not saying that all great art finds its audience. But if you make something you really love and it's great, it certainly helps.
With this latest album, for example, we decided we knew nothing about the business side of music, so we concentrated on what we knew, which was playing, and we just made the record and hoped.
Super Bonus Answer About Other Ways To Support Yourself And Write:
[I worked] as an advertising copywriter, which was equally time consuming until I realized I could do it freelance. I feel like I'll probably always have to do something else, and the best advice is to find something you can do really well really fast that pays a lot.
Lately I've been getting into screenplay writing. There is a lot more money in that business to live on. I'm not sure how you get started in that, though. Someone recently came to me and offered me what I could make in the same time as advertising.
I'm sure Hollywood film making has its own share of guilt, but advertising can get you down sometimes.
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