1,000 True Fans

Through Qitsune’s blog, I came across an article by Kevin Kelly called 1,000 True Fans. According to Kelly, an artist can sustain him or herself with only 1,000 true fans. Fans who will “purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.”

Kelly backs up his theory with numbers, examples and diagrams and his idea seems sound, imo. One thing that stood out to me though is that in order to keep those 1,000 true fans, you have to keep bringing out materials. Keep churning out games, merchandise, extras, and so on to keep your fans coming back. I think that’s true for anything. To keep customers and visitors to your site, you have to keep bringing out content. To keep the money flowing, you have to keep bringing out content.

One of the reasons Working Designs, a small publisher like Atlus, went out of business is that they didn’t keep the money flowing. Their last project that brought their downfall, Growlanser Generations, took too long to be localized and by the time it was released, WD had run out of money and had no option but to close.

Qitsune mentioned that one successful indie who most likely has 1,000 true fans is cliffski (Democracy & Kudos). Another two I would add is Spiderweb’s Jeff Vogel (Avernum & Geneforge) and Good Sol’s Thomas Warfield (Pretty Good Solitaire). They’ve both been around for a very long time. If there are any indie veterans, it would be them. So yes, Virginia, you can be a successful and be an indie too! ;D