Today I want to have a little conversation about something I've been thinking on a lot over the years. Today we're going to talk about…

EXPOSURE.

What is it that first comes to your mind when you think of the word? For someone who doesn't work in a creative field they probably think of a range of images generally all involving nudity or the great outdoors or both. But for someone who does work in a creative field… I bet ya cringed a little when I said it, right?

The artist's outlook on exposure can be summed up quite well with these memes and comics

Friends and Family

If you are an artist (and yes, writers are artists) and a friend or family member — because come on, that's usually how this first happens — asks you to create something for them for free and follows that up with a "you'd be doing this anyway right?" or a "If someone asks, I'll tell them you did it!" — let's get this out of the way right now. Don't do it.

Friends and family members are the hardest people to say no to but it's the most valuable thing you can learn to do as an artist. Do you want to create something for them for a holiday or birthday gift? Then do it! But it should be completely of your own volition and you should get enjoyment out of it. Because that gift is not likely to be an investment in your professional creative future.

Friend and family discounts? A bit better but still not a good idea, as it sets a precedent that you can be bartered with. Even worse, that you can get by on less, and by that logic, it builds the assumption that other artists plying their trade can get by on less than they're saying up-front. It's just not a good image to put across for you and everyone else.

Set your prices and stick to them

After all, your friends and family should have a high enough level of respect for you that they will pay those rates.

So — exposure. Exposure has become the dirtiest word in art and literary spaces, and given what I just said I'm sure you'd assume I'm on board with that . . .

BUT is it actually so terrible?

It can be. But what we've lost sight of in this age of black and white immovable opinions is that there are different degrees of exposure. Different types, and different results that you'll get out of said exposure. Exposure on its own isn't always so bad, but it's the quality of that exposure that you want to analyze when considering an offer.

I'll give you a couple more examples to clarify. I've already brought up friends and family who want free commissions. That's 9/10 times going to be a no.

Nine out of ten you say now? Well, what if that friend or family member wants to display that commission at their home where they regularly host let's say- big charity galas with high rolling donors. Now THAT is good exposure. See? We're already in a grey area.

Next we'll look at big companies

Total transparency here — I myself in my day job work for a large company. What do I do? For the past year I've been reaching out to writers and seeing if they'd like to sign up and join our beta program where they can post their works either for fun, or for — you guessed it — free marketing. This puts me in a unique position as someone who has worked as an artist and writer for well over two decades and is now on the other side of the fence as well.

If a big company comes to you as an artist or writer and says, "Hey, post this stuff on our site for free" you're probably going to be offended if you don't do any research. They're a big wealthy company and they're not offering you money for the work you put your blood sweat and tears into? How dare they.

But wait — what is the scope for exposure?

If this type of opportunity presents itself to you my recommendation would be to look into it. Find out what their traffic is like and find out what the monetary value is that they are offering you in translation to marketing. Because if you've ever looked into marketing online it can get expensive fast. Personally, if someone wanted to give me free ad space in a prime spot, on a site that gets 20 million hits a day, I'm going to take it, because that's worth it.

(Look for future blogs where I go further with this and talk about what you should look for within contractual agreements in sharing your work with the world, what you need to keep an eye out for when it comes to your rights, etc.)

The thing with always turning down exposure instinctively without doing your research or giving it a second thought, is that you can really miss a lot of opportunities for marketing and networking and community building. I've seen a lot of people remain in this sort of unadventurous state, and it never takes them anywhere. It tends to just result in a whole lot of angry ranting on Twitter and that's not constructive for anyone.

Speaking of Twitter and social media in general…

Love it or hate it, we live in a time where THE FOLLOWING matters. The following is important to the point where some agents won't take you on unless you've already got one. Seems backwards? Maybe. My first instinct is to dislike it because a following does not necessarily equal talent.

But I can see both sides of it. The following is out there and why wouldn't they consider it? It shows them you're a good bet.

Not only do you have a track record of people liking you but if you've put that effort into self-marketing already and they can see the investment you've made in yourself as a business, not just a casual creator.

And we could of course get into the whole capitalism, self-expression, larger picture here, but for the sake of brevity we're just accepting the world as it is in this moment ok? OK.

Before I wrap this up

Let me just pose some questions here for you to think on.

If you actively use social media, you are already supporting exposure by being in a writing community on those platforms. Writers lift anyone?

It's because you feel more in control of it right?

But really, a company is in charge of your social media — without them you wouldn't have a page.

It's all about value exchange

If you want to make a living as an artist or writer in this day and age you arguably have to put in more work than ever. Which is funny when you see how quickly some content creators can just blow up out of nowhere. But that's not something one can rely on happening because as obvious and out there as these people are, they are rare within the world's entire population.

The point is, be cautious, but also be logical and do your research to find out if the exposure is good or bad. Take control over yourself as a marketable entity and take advantage of every opportunity that is going to give you returns whether those are financial, or ones that build your following.

In the end of course, it is always your choice how you run your business. I'm just here speaking from my personal experience as an artist and as someone who works in recruitment bridging the gap between product managers and artists.

To conclude

We'd all do well to be less black and white with our thoughts and go into each new situation analytically rather than with a pre-meditated immovable opinion. This applies to every facet of life. We live in a weird time and the less hostile and more community-driven we can be in creative spaces, the better.