When you put your work out into the world, you have to be ready for the good, the bad, and the ugly. The more people come across your work, the more criticism you’ll face. Austin Kleon's writing style is fairly basic but pleasant enough. He does a solid job of explaining what he means, if you were in any doubt about it. Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing.” (Sam: This is similar to Dan Norris’s philosophy in Create or Hate .) So it's shallow, disjointed and really not remotely original. And yet it's being gushed over. So, if nothing else, it should encourage you that utilizing this approach to publicity can work for a creator.

A book for people who hate the very idea of self-promotion, Show Your Work! is the followup to my New York Times bestselling guide to creativity, Steal Like An Artist. If Steal was a book about stealing influence from others, Show is about influencing others by letting them steal from you. The act of sharing is one of generosity—you’re putting something out there because you think it might be helpful or entertaining to someone on the other side of the screen.” Imagine if your next boss didn't have to read your résumé because he already reads your blog. Imagine being a student and getting your first gig based on a school project you posted online. Imagine losing your job but having a social network of people familiar with your work and ready to help you find a new one. Imagine turning a side project or a hobby into your profession because you had a following that could support you.Share other people’s work – We all like different things. If you can share the stuff you like, if you can curate it for others, good things will happen. Sharing my working process has allowed people to see how I work and what goes into my process, reaching people further afield and allowing me to work with people all over the world.

Share your reading list, point to helpful reference materials, create some tutorials to teach people. Take people step-by-step through part of your process – make people better at something that they want to be better at. Teaching people doesn’t subtract from what you do, it actually adds to it. People feel closer to you because you’re letting them in on what you know.Third act: the future. Where you’re going, and how exactly the person you’re pitching can help you get there

I think of it as “Will this potentially help at least one person in the world? If so, I should share it.” Dime:¿qué habría pasado si Leonardo Da Vinci no hubiera pintado la sonrisa de la Gioconda porque estaba cansado de pintar todos los días o porque, maldita sea, ya podía sonreír la modelo, joder? Sin duda, su obra no sería la misma. Así es la rutina. Hay que trabajarla hasta conseguir que nos sonría. Todos los días. O, en su defecto, hacerlo nosotros. ¿Y qué mejor manera de conseguirlo que divirtiéndonos?⠀ When you feel like you’ve learned everything there is to learn from what you’re doing, it’s time to change course. Find something new to learn so that you can move forward. Embrace the spirit of the amateur. Y ou can’t be content with mastery in one area, you need to push yourself to become a student again. It’s like when comedians throw away their old sets: “when you get rid of old material, you push yourself further and come up with something better. When you throw out old work, what you’re really doing is making room for new work. You have to have to courage to get rid of work and rethink things completely”. The thing is, you’re not really starting over. You can never really start over, because w hilst you may clear out old things, you’re still a different person thanks to all of the things you done and learnt along the way. Ernest Hemingway. Would stop in the middle of a sentence at the end of his day’s work so he knew where to instantly get started again in the morning.Once a day, after you’ve done your day’s work, find one little piece of your process that you can share. Where you are in your process will determine what that piece is. If you’re in the very early stages, share your influences and what’s inspiring you. If you’re in the middle of executing a project, write about your methods or share works in progress. If you’ve just completed a project, show the final product, share scraps from the cutting-room floor, or write about what you learned. Start reading the obituaries every morning. Take inspiration from the people who muddled through life before you—they all started out as amateurs, and they got where they were going by making do with what they were given, and having the guts to put themselves out there. Follow their example.” Your influences are all worth sharing because they clue people into who you are and what you do—sometimes even more than your own work.”

As a reward, you’ll start to see the work you’re doing more clearly and feel like you’re making progress. And when you’re ready to share, you’ll have a surplus of material to choose from. Completed a project: show the final product, share scraps from the cutting-room floor, or write about what you learned This is one of the three books that most changed my life (the others being The 4-Hour Work Week and Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur ). The problem is there's really not a lot more substance on offer. Kleon explains the why of each idea, but he really doesn't go into how. And for me at least, the how is the bit that really matters. This is the bit where, almost invariably, how-to books fall down. It sounds a little extreme, but in this day and age, if your work isn’t online, it doesn’t exist. We all have the opportunity to use our voices, to have our say, but so many of us are wasting it. If you want people to know about what you do and the things you care about, you have to share.”

Praise

Despite that, you may want to consider buying the book. Because while Austin Kleon really doesn't offer a single new idea, it is possible that his amiable presentation of the ideas will trigger you to act on them. In short, the emperor has no clothes, but it may not matter. Within the book introduction. Austin said he hates self-promotion Austin believes. If you focus on getting really good, people will come to you.