How social media is forcing writers and artists to build personal brands and become influencers, making many artists uncomfortable and feel like sellouts
So you want to be an artist. Do you have to start a TikTok? — When Rachael Kay Albers was shopping around her book proposal … Threads: @joanwestenberg and @jonathangarelick Mastodon: @lilithsaintcrow … , @neauoire@merveilles.town , @db0@hachyderm.io , @LAGilman@raggedfeathers.com , @jon@gruene.social , @osma@mas.to , @damianogerli@mastodon.social , and @taylorlorenz@mastodon.social X: @bigmeaninternet , @ramzeerawkz , @nmamatas , @molenasreddin , @chaykak , @iamlouislaroche , @_zeets , @rebexxxxa , @ibrahim_m_ , and @pronounced_ing . LinkedIn: Caitlin Dewey See also Mediagazer Threads: Joan Westenberg / @joanwestenberg : The death of the writer has arrived. @verge have pretty much nailed it in their piece on self promotion. In the social media era, writers must become podcasters, graphic designers, videographers, and conventionally attractive TikTok models to gain an audience. … Jonathan Garelick / @jonathangarelick : CEO of Browser Company responds to criticism of new AI browser Mastodon: Lili Saintcrow / @lilithsaintcrow@raggedfeathers.com : “That labor amounts to constant self-promotion in the form of cheap trend-following, ever-changing posting strategies, and the nagging feeling that what you are really doing with your time is marketing, not art.” https://www.vox.com/... Devine Lu Linvega / @neauoire@merveilles.town : “YouTubers have said the pressure of posting their lives led them to deep unhappiness, depression, and anxiety, but that they feel like they can't take breaks because they know the algorithm will punish them.” — https://www.vox.com/... @db0@hachyderm.io : I'm doing a ton of #FOSS work, and I notice this is even necessary for us as well https://www.vox.com/... A ton of the successful FOSS projects I see have dedicated people doing social media all the time. @reduz from #GodotEngine is micro-blogging constantly (on Ex-Twitter) which is a great help for keeping people talking about Godot. … Laura Anne Gilman / @LAGilman@raggedfeathers.com : https://www.vox.com/... IMO, the “art” of the hustle is not just counterintuitive, but counterproductive to the art of storytelling. If you prioritize, the former, you exhaust the ability to do the latter for the majority of people. Jon Worth / @jon@gruene.social : “you start to become way too aware of things like posting schedules, and it's impossible to be punk anymore” — This Vox piece is about art and self promotion, but it could apply to any of us - including people trying to campaign about railways https://www.vox.com/... @osma@mas.to : In the first stage of social media, we moved everything to the platforms before we understood how toxic they would become. — In the second stsge, we kept piling on despite understanding they are toxic to civil society. — In the third stage, we hand over all livelihood opportunities to the platforms BECAUSE they are toxic. … Damiano Gerli / @damianogerli@mastodon.social : A positive New York Times review used to create overnight hits, while now it barely moves the needle. What has replaced them is, as Israel Daramola writes, “a loose collection of YouTubers and influencers who feed slop to their younger audiences, and obsessed fan communities. … Taylor Lorenz / @taylorlorenz@mastodon.social : “Despite the fact that for most people, the act of writing looks very boring, author-content creators succeed by making the visually uninteresting labor of typing on a laptop worthwhile to watch.” https://www.vox.com/... X: Malcolm Harris / @bigmeaninternet : Part of this problem imo is that so much of the culture promo industry has been automated and so it's left to artists/creators to do it themselves. Often poorly. We need impresarios! https://www.vox.com/... Ramzee / @ramzeerawkz : “Everyone's a sellout now” Naomi Klein saying the biggest change in the world since 1999 is “neoliberalism has created so much precarity that the commodification of the self is now seen as the only route to any kind of economic security.” https://www.vox.com/... @nmamatas : The amazing thing about this article on “selling out” is that it doesn't address the question at all. If you set out to become a pop star or a YA best-seller and then become one or even get halfway there, you have not sold out at all. https://www.vox.com/... @molenasreddin : like this vox piece but i have been hearing journalists and authors say this for twenty years and it continues to just not be true outside of their fields https://www.vox.com/... [image] Kyle Chayka / @chaykak : this is what Kate Eichhorn calls “content capital” https://www.vox.com/... Louis La Roche / @iamlouislaroche : Possibly the most compelling article I've read in recent years about how it feels to be an artist on social media these days. That constant feeling that you have to be promoting something at all times. That marketing means more than the art itself. https://www.vox.com/... Zito / @_zeets : “A society made up of human beings who have turned themselves into small businesses is basically the logical endpoint of free market capitalism, anyway.” https://www.vox.com/... [image] Rebecca Jennings / @rebexxxxa : I wrote about the soul-sucking labor of self-promotion and “audience building” that basically every artist/journalist/creative worker has to do now ... unless they are very lucky https://www.vox.com/... @ibrahim_m_ : This Vox article about how creatives have to turn ourselves into “brands” is a very good read. I think a lot about this as it relates to being a comic book artist. We're held to a standard of 4-5 pgs/wk —a page can take 1-2 days to draw... (1/) https://www.vox.com/... [image] Celeste Ng / @pronounced_ing : “It's precisely the kind of work that is uncomfortable for most artists, who by definition concern themselves with what it means to be a person in the world, not what it means to be a brand.” https://www.vox.com/... LinkedIn: Caitlin Dewey : This is so excellent and accurate and, imo, symptomatic of larger failings in the market. (But perhaps ye denizens of LinkedIn are more optimistic.) … See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Earlier coverage showed prominent media figures using Cameo and Substack to earn from smaller, direct audiences, while this story describes the other side of that shift: visibility still depends heavily on continual public self-promotion.
The pressure is especially consequential because conventional gatekeepers no longer reliably determine discovery. As attention on major social platforms fragments, creators face incentives to make themselves as marketable as their work; prior reporting also found Twitter-native businesses escalating provocative tactics as audiences changed.
First-order effects
- Writers and artists must divert time and skills from making work toward frequent posting, video, design, and audience management to remain discoverable.
- Creators who dislike self-promotion face a practical disadvantage in platform-led discovery, while those able to sustain a recognizable online persona gain a more direct route to fans.
Second-order effects
- Publishers, arts organizations, and creative teams are pushed to evaluate creators partly by their existing reach, reinforcing personal-brand work as an input to distribution.
- A market for outsourced persona production can expand alongside the demand: paid ghostwriting for high-profile social accounts illustrates how social presence can be separated from the creator's core work.
Third-order effects
- If discovery remains platform-mediated, creative careers may increasingly reward the ability to operate a continuous media channel rather than artistic output alone, concentrating leverage with platforms that control reach.
- Alternatives such as federated networks and paid-content models could reduce dependence on major feeds, but only if they provide creators comparably effective discovery and income.
The trend: Creative work is being reorganized around audience ownership and algorithmic distribution, turning personal visibility into an increasingly necessary layer of professional practice.