Manu Bazzano
Roll up Roll up! Special offer! Last chance! 20 per cent off! 50 per cent off! Free ! Let me pay you!
Ah - the language of commerce. Once thought I was above it all. I was a writer, an artist. The vulgar business of selling was for my publishers to vex over. I just sat and made stuff up. That was how I wanted it to be.
How different it seems now. Since writing has become a part of the creative industry, within the attention economy, I now somehow have to personally work hard attract the consumer’s attention at all costs ( while I could be writing).
I have to plead for money. I have to spend half my time working out algorithms that will somehow reach you. I have to cajole, I have to persuade.
All things I’m not terribly good at or very much interested in.
However for the late capitalist economy there is only one way to go about things. To sell yourself. Put your content out there and hustle your way into everybody’s consciousness and thereby into their pockets.
How did it come to this? It doesn’t really matter. It has, and we all have to get used to it. I am still in some ways an artist, but I am in many other ways just a door to door saleseman. Living in an ivory tower, if it was ever an option, isn’t any more. More a virtual shop floor in cyberspace.
All the same, I’m not entirely in the pocket of the market. I can make this claim because I am about to make changes to this Substack thread that go against all the advice of the professional marketeers.
Those marketeers say, ‘find your audience and point yourself at it’. If you like macrame, then make sure your Substack is all about macrame and not about macaroons or Mandarin. Otherwise, it will confuse the reader and splinter your market base. Aim squarely at the target.
Well - I don’t care any more. Which is why I am going to go against all the advice and make Boot Camp a poly…something or other. Polymathic post? Multifaceted musings? Do I have to do the alliteration ( another marketing tic)?
Instead of just concentrating on the craft of writing I am introducing a philosophy and psychology thread (as well as my weekly essays on the subject of just about anything at all).
It’s going to be called ‘15 Minute Philosophy - A Sunday Communion’.
Communion as in:
1. UNCOUNTABLE NOUN [oft a NOUN]Communion with nature or with a person is the feeling that you are sharing thoughts or feelings with them.
It’s a series of brief, 15 minute conversations about life, the mind and things spiritual, undertaken with my former therapist, Manu Bazzano, who also happens to be trained Zen monk.
Manu is a remarkable man, both witty and wise, from whom I learnt a great deal during the decade I was a client of his. I would love to share some of the wisdom he has imparted over the years, leading me towards a far more complete and balanced state of being, and continue to explore ideas together.
.We will talk about Zen, consciousness, psychology, psychotherapy, religion, Buddha and anything we feel like talking about it. There will be no borders.
It isn’t targeted and it isn’t focus grouped. It just us talking. It will appear both as a video and as a written transcription ( if I can get the tech right, which is a big if).
Oh dear - what have I just done? I have tried to sell it to you, although I prefer think of it as explaining. Will you buy it? That’s up to you. It’s free at first but I will put it behind a paywall soon. When that happens I hope you will become a paying subscriber. But I’m not going to try and convince you. I’m weary of holding out the begging bowl.
Come and join us - or don’t. Entirely up to you. The first 15 Minute Philosophy will appear on Sunday, June 30. Scores of my writing lessons and tips remain online behind the paywall as archive, and I will continue to post Saturday essays every week - as I always have. Archived weekly writing lessons will appear singly, Freed From Behind The Paywall, every Thursday.
There will only be one event on Tuesdays. On the first Tuesday of every month there will be Juke Books, when you share your favourite reads with other subscribers.
So here’s the new schedule:
First Tuesday of Every Month - Juke Books
Every Thursday - Writing Lessons, Freed from the Behind the Paywall
Every Saturday - New Essay.
Every Sunday - 15 Minute Philosophy - A Sunday Communion, With Manu Bazzano.
An eclectic mix, a marketeers nightmare - but my idea of fun. Hope it’s yours too and that you will come and join me.
Tim - it feels like you will be doing a better thing with your Sunday posts. Your text on what the marketeers say (reproduced below) is reminding me of the current election slogans by all parties, e.g, “clear plan, bold action, secure future”
Sorry to bring the imminent election into these posts but the marketing schtick reminds me of the trite and patronising wording of political messaging. Does anyone really believe this stuff?
Those marketeers say, ‘find your audience and point yourself at it’. If you like macrame, then make sure your Substack is all about macrame and not about macaroons or Mandarin. Otherwise, it will confuse the reader and splinter your market base. Aim squarely at the target.
Mixing it up and not focusing on your target audience…? How very dare you! Very looking forward to Sunday communion.
You did mention a 12 week summer writing school. Is that still in the pipeline? Or perhaps further into autumn would be better for people?