I have been assisting a local, online writer's group in recent months. Today, we were discussing marketing your work. One of my fellow writer's expressed concern because his first book was so controversial, people were not willing to give his second book a chance. This was a hard one to field. You see, for whatever reason, people in general can be very mean. If they do not like a book, or a song, or a painting, they criticize the author, or artist, and will trumpet their opinion to the world. By that same token, if they do not like the author or artist, for whatever reason, they trumpet that the work is likewise unlikeable.
The best advice I can give, and did to this young fellow, is that in this occupation, you have to have a tough skin. That goes for any artist with any medium. Music, painting, literature, food, dance, it doesn't matter. There are always going to be people like that. And that is ok. Because those people are the minority, and their opinion really does not matter. What matters, is whether the artist, that is, you, believe in your work. If so, then it is worth sharing with the world.
The best advice I can give, and did to this young fellow, is that in this occupation, you have to have a tough skin. That goes for any artist with any medium. Music, painting, literature, food, dance, it doesn't matter. There are always going to be people like that. And that is ok. Because those people are the minority, and their opinion really does not matter. What matters, is whether the artist, that is, you, believe in your work. If so, then it is worth sharing with the world.