Blogger: Rachelle Gardner
I watched a YouTube video from 2016 that featured Pharrell Williams giving a Masterclass with music students at NYU. The thing that’s really neat about this clip is that it captures the moment recording artist Maggie Rogers was “discovered” by Pharrell. It’s fun and heartwarming watching his reaction to her song. (Start watching around the 23-minute mark.) Things went nuts for her after that. Her debut album released a couple of weeks ago, and she’s now on a world tour. (Okay, yes, I bought her CD.)
But the reason I bring it up is because of something she said in a recent NPR interview. As they were discussing the amazingly fast journey from studying music to recording and touring, she said:
“I’ve never had any doubts about the music. But the reality of the music industry is something I had to learn.”
Exactly.
The music. The art. The writing. The craft.
You know that part. You’re an artist, you’re a writer, you’ve been patiently and diligently working on it, developing your voice, nurturing your skill. You’re comfortable with that aspect of the journey.
But publishing! The industry! The reality! It may be frustrating. It may not make any sense. There is so much you don’t know. It may seem arbitrary, unfair, a long shot, any of those things. The point is, as Maggie Rogers so aptly pointed out, it’s a whole new thing to learn.
And that’s normal. Everybody deals with the same difficulty: making that transition from developing the craft to navigating the industry. Luckily there are practically unlimited resources these days for learning about the industry, from podcasts to blogs to conferences to online courses.
As you transition from the writing to the industry, I hope you take heart in knowing it’s a learning curve for everyone. It’s something you have to learn, and you will learn it. It’s sometimes frustrating but it’s totally doable.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Great post, Rachelle, and I loved the video.
I never really got the knack
of all I had to learn,’
of all the stuff that’s ‘in the back’
of the dreams for which I yearn.
I danced out in courtship,
but could marriage be so hard?
I sang in joyous worship,
not seeing Jesus scarred.
I took the glittering surface
that captured my young heart
but faced not the relentless
pull to the deeper part.
That depth that can be so scary
becomes the Cross that we must carry.
Maco Stewart
When I finished my second draft of my third novel, I thought I was “getting there.” What I realized was that yes, I’d gotten to the top of that range, but across a huge valley was a whole other snowcapped range—the publishing “thing,” with its own body of new mysteries to conquer. As you said, Rachelle, this, too, is doable. Thanks for the encouragement.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Yeah, Maco, there’s a lot to be said for false summits…pretty much all of it profane.
Lori Altebaumer
These words are so true! Coming from a business background, I knew I would need to learned enough to be informed about the writing industry but I focused everything on learning and bettering the craft (that was, after all, the part I loved). I did not realize how much I would need to know about the industry. I need far more than the surface level knowledge I anticipated! And thankfully the resources for learning are there.
This morning I was reading about the lesson of the withered fig tree in Matthew and I saw a parallel between what we need to do on the business side of writing and what we are called to do as writers. Too much time on platform and social media and we become all leaf, no fruit. But the leaves are still vital to the development and usefulness of the fruit. Learning to balance is an art form itself!
Damon J. Gray
Rachelle, I get the point you’re trying to emphasize with this post, but I am struggling with the parallel.
Please feel free to redirect me here, but as I ponder this and wrestle with it, I keep coming back to the characterization of being “discovered” by Pharrell. Maggie did not have a platform. Instead, she studied, practiced, honed her craft, and was “discovered” while attending a Masterclass, a class in which she was doing the very things I just enumerated.
Now that she is discovered, she will be picked up by a label and it is THEN that she will grow a following (platform).
For the writer, the platform building must happen now, prior to being discovered. Indeed, I suspect you have had countless proposals by talented, even gifted writers, cross your desk. In that sense, you discovered them, but cannot do anything about that because unlike the recording industry, the publishing industry wants the following before the discovery rather than discovering the artist and then developing the following.
Am I all wet?
– damon
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
For you, Damon…an uneucated guess as to what’s happening.
If you have no platform
your wagon has no horse;
in the writing world it’s now the norm
to require a charted course
and a masive following, with email
lists to mine,
recognition is the Holy Grail;
but have we made a Frankenstein?
Is salemanship now the standard
that will open doors?
Have we as a society pandered
to social media’s mores?
I’m no expert (please take heed!),
but platform’s changed what we read.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
And please pardon the typos. The ‘s’ key is wanting to take the day off.
Patricia Iacuzzi
I can’t believe how (actually I can) I moved into this industry; first through enjoyment of reading and writing groups; getting on FB etc. several yrs. ago (without thinking how it might impact my work), then going for–and loving– the professional training, and finally seeing that distant publishing range that I needed to climb coming ever closer. But Someone has my hand, or I wouldn’t have gotten this far.
Thanks for the use of the binoculars, Rachelle!
Elizabeth Bohan
Love the post Rachelle for a variety of reasons.
One, it gave me an opportunity to be in on a Master Class with Pharrell and see the discovery of Maggie whose music I fell in love with.
Two, it acknowledges the work of someone unlike others, and that it’s important to value and stir up that gift, as Paul told Timothy. Paul was obviously talking about preaching and being a leader of a group of early Christians. But, God still gives gifts to people that need to be stirred up to take our place in His grand scheme of things.
This helps me, as I have always felt like a maverick. My background was so different from others, and as a result I’ve never fit a mold. Add to that a mind and heart constantly creating and looking for ways to express it with a passion known only to those who have suffered deep wounds transformed by the Master Creator.
I have been told on numerous occasions there is no one like me. This could be scary or flattering. For me, it is neither. Instead, it is an excepting of the way God has used EVERYTHING in my life to form me into me. At age 61, I have come to the point where I embrace that. I don’t ever want to be anyone else. I am who I am by God’s hand and choices I’ve made to join in his process of forming me.
I’m not waiting around just to be published and have my book on a shelf. Would I like that? Certainly! But, I am busy being me and stretching myself in all kinds of ways so I can learn new things by keeping my.mind and attitude in a state of being teachable.
Right now, I am learning many things, podcasting and vlogging for example, at the same time as writing. In nursing, I always had to be ready to learn new things.
And finally, the third thing your post gives me a huge break in the stress of platform. Why? Because as I create, I am developing an audience little by little. I’m just in the baby stages, and haven’t put myself out there like I know I could because I’m still working on my material. It’s one step at a time. I keep moving forward. One of these days, Lord willing, it will blossom into something beautiful.
Thank you Rachelle.
Michelle Aleckson
Love the Resees Peanut Butter cup comparison too! 😉
Elizabeth Bohan
Me too Michelle! When I’m in line at the store the Reeses Peanut Cup seems to call my name! Then when the Almond Joy joins in and they sing a duet, I can barely get past without stopping—but usually I do cause if I succumb it only means extra intense Zumba! ?