Today I want to talk about why we create and share. This is something I meditate on all the time, and it is why I work with writers. This week in particular I’ve been thinking about it a lot because I heard of the death of one of my favorite musicians. As I considered his legacy, I was reminded of something: Art lasts. By “art,” I mean anything we create: your writing, your illustrations, your music, your sculpture, your performance, anything creative. After we are gone, art lasts. When we leave the room, art lasts. When someone finishes your book, art lasts.

I have heard versions of this from many writers over the years: “An agent told me that if I had 10,000 followers, they would sign me.” Is that true? I don’t think so. Largely, I think this number is entirely made up. What agents and publishers may instead be seeking is a writer's ability to illustrate that they can reach readers. And sometimes “followers” is simply a convenient metric to represent that. Today, I explore this topic in-depth.