Philosophy: Supporting Friends
Several friends of mine on social media have posted the above meme on Facebook and Twitter. How I feel is totally determined by what you mean by “support.”
I wish all of my friends well in their artistic endeavors. Hell, I think everyone should have some sort of hobby/endeavor of creating something. I tend to pity people who spend all their free time binge-watching TV or playing video games. I like games and movies, but it shouldn’t be the only thing you do in your free time.
Anyway, back on topic: If we’re talking about financial patronage, this is where I disagree with the meme. You should only financially support (ie. buy the product of) your friends if their creative work is to your taste. On top of that, they should be totally cool with you not buying their product if it’s not to your taste.
For example, if I have a friend who writes romance novels, I’m going to wish them the best and recommend their works to my friends who do read such books, but I’m not going to buy any because that’s not my thing.
Why do I feel this way? Because just the patronage of your friends isn’t going to be enough to keep you afloat should you wish to pursue this as a career profession. You will need mass-appeal in order to survive. If you’re a writer attempting mainstream publication, you’ll need to convince agents and publishers that you’ll have mass appeal because they’ll be taking some very large risks on your behalf.
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