by Johnny B. Truant

Think about this for a second: “Normal” is nothing more than cultural brainwashing.

Now, I’m not getting all conspiracy theoristy on you. I don’t think our society has been engineered by dark forces meant to erase our brains. (Reality TV did that. Dark forces were not necessary.)

What I mean is that for a long time, there were only so many media outlets in the world. TV was originally broadcast on three major networks, and everyone listened to the same radio. Even after channels multiplied (thank you, cable TV, Netflix, and the internet), most content was still only made by a small group of people. Movies and TV are expensive and take a lot of specialized talent, equipment, and money, so only certain groups can make them. That’s even true today, as content has democratized and expanded. 

Welcome to California

Here’s a question: Have you ever noticed how many movies are set (not just shot) in California?

That happens because the people who make movies primarily live in California, so they’re best able to write what they know. It’s not sinister; it’s just a fact of human nature. It’s the reason more of my protagonists are middle-class straight cis white guys than anything else: because I’m a middle-class straight cis white guy. That doesn’t happen because I’m trying to push a viewpoint or agenda. It happens because like most writers, I draw most easily and naturally from the world I know.

If you knew nothing about the United States except what you saw in movies and TV, you might think that most Americans live in California, since so many movies and TV shows are set there. You might think that California took up half of the North American land mass, seeing as relatively few movies are set anywhere else.

I’m sure there’s been some deliberate manipulation of TV and movies, but my maybe-naive belief is that most of our media’s historically homogenous portrayal of the world comes from laziness and complacency, not evil intent. I think that most creators just wake up in the morning and write the world they see around them, because it’s their world. And then, because the film and TV industry broadcasts that vision of that world, it starts to seem like it must be everyone else’s world, too.

Normal isn't always normal.

In other words, “normal” isn’t actually the norm. It’s more like a lopsided delusion. When we think of “normal,” we’re talking about what we think the world looks like … and a lot of our “looks like” is created by the media we consume — media that was written by a group of people who aren’t remotely the majority.

What we call “normal” is actually the worldview of a tiny minority who just so happen to have massive reach. Ten people in a Hollywood office work together to write a movie filled with people like themselves, doing things they do, surrounded by activities they enjoy, responding to things in the way their mothers and families always responded to things, aspiring to goals that make sense to them. Then that movie becomes a blockbuster, and everyone thinks that version of life is just “how things are.”

I was forty before I finally understood something my father kept trying to tell me: that 1950s America wasn’t anything like Leave it to Beaver or Mister Ed. Nope. Those were just versions of life and values held by the small group of people who made decisions in TV at the time. Sure, there were people like that … but it was far from everyone.

Different is the New Normal

I’ve taken you down this philosophical rabbit hole for one reason:

Think about what we consider “normal,” along with all the pressures in the world — both overt and subtle — to conform to that normality.

Now, remember that if “normal” is actually the worldview of a minority with a disproportionately huge reach, that means “abnormal” people actually outnumber them. Weirdly, “abnormal” is more normal than “normal.” Remember what Lewis said in Revenge of the Nerds? “We have news for the beautiful people: There’s a lot more of us than there are of you.” 

Normal is a lie. By the numbers, the most “normal” thing you can be is atypical.

This matters to you as an Artisan Author because the Artisan ethos is all about being unique. It’s about operating with a different flavor than the norm. If readers want mainstream, they know exactly where to find it. If they want something different — something off the beaten path, told in a different way — they come to us. It’s our duty to give them that difference — to be brave enough to show them our way of peering through the looking glass.

All these years, everyone outside of our culture’s definition of “normal” has been ignored and underserved. That’s great news for you, if you’re weird. If you’ve got a freak flag in your back pocket, then by all means get out there and fly it. There are audiences all over the world who’ve been waiting breathlessly for a worldview that better matches their own than the mainstream. All those people will see your outside-the-nine-dots books as a breath of fresh air … but only if you’ve got the guts to go out there and be yourself.

From Weirdo to Bestseller

Want an example of how “different’ can be an advantage for you as an author — especially one who markets and sells your books in the ways this book talks about? Okay, sure — I’ve got one all ready for you.

Exhibit A: Chuck Tingle.

I won’t list Chuck’s book titles because this is a family blog, but do yourself a favor and look him up. I laughed so hard at his early books because it seemed he was walking a fine line between erotica and winking hilarity, and I couldn’t tell which side he was on.

But then one day, I saw a book by the author of Scary Stories to Tingle Your Butt and Handsome Sentient Bubblegum Who Is Also a Successful Landscape Architect in all of the bookstores around me. Suddenly good ol’ Chuck’s got a horror book called Bury Your Gays running up the bestseller charts.

I’m telling you, man: There are bestsellers-in-waiting out there in the oddest places.

If you’re far outside society’s usual nine dots, you’ve actually got an advantage on this one. If you’re more like me, though, you’re a lot closer to the mainstream and won’t stand out as easily as that aforementioned breath of fresh air. Fortunately, you don’t need to be far off center to find your own special tribe. Every author’s style is unique, if the author lets it be unique.

Where do you fit?

I used to back away from making the constant 80s and 90s references that find their way into my books. They were funny to me, but I figured a lot of people would either never get them or find them annoying. Then I realized it was more tiring and less fun to try to be mainstream than to just leave it alone, so I started letting me be me.

I used to wonder why I kept shooting myself in the foot by creating books that didn’t cleanly appeal to any of the major genres. I mean, who was Unicorn Western for — western fans, or fantasy fans? Who was The Future of Sex for — sci-fi fans skeeved out by the hard-R rating, or hard-R readers who didn’t appreciate the intense sci-fi? And forget about the several humor/erotica titles Sean and I had so much fun writing, the best of which was Adult Video. Who the hell were those books for? 

Well, they were for me and Sean, of course. We loved all of them.

They were for my wife, who laughed until she cried reading Adult Video.

And they were for the folks here and there who emailed to tell me or to request more of the same.

Were there a lot of those people?

Nope.

Were there some?

Yep.

And those some — who hung in there through every one of my freak-flag books — have historically been my best and most loyal fans.

If You Try To Please Everyone, You’ll End Up Pleasing No One

If you write a book meant to please as many people as possible in the mass-market audience, you’ll have to take out all the edgy stuff that makes it different. To write a book with maximally broad appeal, you’ll have to smooth it out and make it bland, like unflavored ice cream. Giving a book any strong flavor at all means limiting its appeal … but it also means strengthening its appeal to the smaller number of people who like it.

The fans of Unicorn Western, The Future of Sex, and Adult Video don’t just like those books. They LOVE those books. They RAVE about those books. They become superfans. They jump whole-hog into my world because I gave them something that nobody else could.

An Artisan Author must be bold. Bolder than other authors, who are, in themselves, pretty bold. An Artisan Author has to be bold enough to say, “You know all those people out there who are brave enough to put their creative work on the line for all the world to see? Well, I’m going to be different from them. They’re outsiders, but I’m going to be an outsider even among the outsiders.”

Being an outsider isn’t a bad thing. In practice, it’s an amazing thing. Because the truth is that even if you’re alone among authors, you’re not actually alone. There’s a whole tribe of readers out there who’ve been waiting for something only you can deliver.

Nobody else can be you. Nobody can duplicate what you uniquely offer.

It’s your cheat code, and using it can be terrifying … but isn’t that true of all real creation.

This is based on an excerpt from the book The Artisan Author, available now.

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About Johnny

Johnny B. Truant is the author of The Artisan Author: The Low-Stress, High-Quality, Fan-Focused Approach to Escaping the Publishing Rat Race. You can get it here right now on Kickstarter, or later in the usual stores.

Featured image from Depositphotos.