How to keep anxious fans waiting as you focus on creating new stuff without publishing too early to satisfy their need?

You have heard of the second album problem, maybe? You know, the next album to publish after hitting fame hard. The pressure is high, and expectations higher. You must prove yourself again, now. As your career goes on, every new album, movie, game, book, painting, maybe video, whatever you’re producing gains a bigger audience – if all goes well.

One of my favorite bands took 10 years of fans’ constant whining with a “it’s coming” attitude, and you know what… It was worth the wait. Still. How do you keep working under such pressure and not release material you’re not absolutely happy with?

People in spirit are asking me for an answer. They think staying poor and obscure has been a wise, conscious, and patient choice. In truth, I publish everything before I’ve finished working with it, and that’s quite a good place to start. Nobody takes me seriously because my work is published before its time. In truth, I like the Internet’s rough-around-the-edges approaches, but I seem to be in the minority with that. I like watching things develop over time, but most people want the finished product.

It may make sense to give sneak peeks into what you’re developing if you’re not worried about potential plagiarism when releasing unfinished content. You might still get over your biggest urge to publish by showing some of your work to trusted colleagues and friends… And you might test them with some rubbish you don’t care about to see if it winds up in the news or what not.

The important part is to love your work. Let your bandmates wait for your lyrics as you ruminate over every line. And remind them that you may not look like you’re working, but your mind is always busy with it… Just keep it true. You don’t write brilliant rock lyrics in front of a laptop in a white-walled study. An artist lives within his art; you write what you know, and to know something new, you have to live life… Not sit in an office. A big part of an artist’s and creative’s life is to live to the fullest. Not work to the fullest.

Some artists are tied to their tools, but you better love that tool. The tools of your trade must be your best friends for any of this to work.

Avoiding winding up and pleasing your audience too much is another hurdle. They’ll have opinions. “Their first album was much better. This is not real Favorite Band.” Just know that a lot of fans are suspicious of big producers and record labels, and they fear they will change their band’s or author’s tone and authenticity. Therefore, they NEED TO “like” the early stuff more even when they don’t.

A lot of people will like you, but they want perfection. Listen to them only if their idea of perfection matches yours. Hold your own attention squarely on your idea of perfection—your vision, your way. Let them call you difficult and inflexible. Some people working with celebrities call you those things because that’s what they admire—traits of perfectionists.

Whenever people say something that upsets you, try to see if what they say is actually a compliment. “They take so long to finish a piece.” Slow or meticulous? Are they calling you a man with a vision, or difficult? Rigid or loyal-to-his-roots?

Just keep your head down and turn down the social media noise when you need to. Temporarily close accounts if you need space. You don’t need to listen to it ALL THE TIME. Wouldn’t it be nice to only take comments and pings and notifications when you are interested! Maybe you could start a trend and close comments from fans until you have a question for them, and then let them flood your feed with something meaningful. I’d kinda love that as a fan. I’d know you’re listening and interested, and I’m not just adding to the noise.

Also, you might want to interpret things from Lover-thinking* and Cat Type Thinking* perspectives. Your loudest fans are largely the Dog Type Thinker. Cat Type Thinking* fans exist, but they speak a lot less over noise. They want a connection first before they speak. They’ll write longer messages to you on social media and letters if they do. The Dog Type Thinker will also try to irritate you and criticise over the dumbest/most unfair things you so you’d notice them over the noise. You can ignore what they’re saying if you’re the Cat Type Thinkers like many (most) artists are.

Just know that sometimes to please the audience the best thing you can do with them is to force them to wait another few more months… Maybe even years before they get what they want. They will.

When there’s a lot of people in your ear demanding you rush because they’re impatient, you’ll just have to keep your head down and keep working, and remind yourself that the less time you spend explaining to them why you need to get this done, the faster you’ll get it done and you’ll be able to deliver. And as far as I’m concerned, I’m much happier having people anxiously waiting for everything I do, than not have anyone give the first sh** about what I do. Just be happy they want it, and keep working.

Also, you might want to stock up stuff when you’re not famous yet or when you get onto a roll. Then release it gradually to satisfy the crowds. Call it the buy me some more time -folder.

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