How to Build Your Creative Career

May these pages help you expand your business and give you the freedom you deserve.

Thank you so much for picking up this book. Just by holding it in your hands, I know you are more serious about your career than 99 percent of creatives I meet. You are ready to make more money as a creative, and you think buying this book is a good idea.

Together, these are incredibly powerful tools, but even alone they can make you a better business person. Every lesson is packed with ways to build your career as a creative and start thinking about yourself as a business without feeling yucky inside.

I’ve broken my thoughts into five sections: Creating great content, the basics of selling, building an audience from scratch, making money at live events, and launching a successful product.

I am a writer by trade and a publisher by profession, and my experience skews toward comic books and novels. However, I’ve done my best to give examples from all creative fields.

What is a creative? A creative is anybody that makes things. This includes, but isn’t limited to: writers, painters, sculptors, craft people, comic book artists, singers, musicians, animators, and people that create things from scratch, with a strong emphasis on people who create products, whether that be books, art prints, jewelry, oven mitts, et al.

That’s what this book is about—how to turn your art into a business and make a career as a creative.

Of course, this isn’t the case. The market is flooded with content. It’s impossible to stand out from the crowd without a bullhorn. The good news is that it’s also never been easier to build an audience and find a market for your work. The tools are already in your hands.

I learned this a long time ago when I was stubborn and ignorant. I thought sales was gross and marketing was evil. I thought people should value my work for its merit alone. I thought people would magically find me...and that puppy dogs cleaned their own poop.

Growing a brand and a business offers you the flexibility to turn down work and have enough money to take vacations with your family; it allows you to save for retirement and prevents you from working your fingers to the bone just to scrape by.