NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SHIT

(I love this. It’s an excerpt from a book of the same name by Steven Pressfield. He says it’s the most important lesson he ever learned, and he learned it when he worked in advertising.)

“The first thing you learn in advertising is that no one wants to read your shit.

Your ads I mean.

People hate ads. I hate them myself.

I hate TV commercials.

Why should I waste my valuable time watching that lying garbage, trying to sell me crap I don’t need or want?

Sometimes young writers acquire the idea from their years in school that the world is waiting to read what they’ve written.

They get this idea because their teachers had to read their essays, or term papers, or dissertations.

In the real world no one is waiting to read what you’ve written.

Sight unseen they hate what you’ve written.

Why?

Because they might have to actually read it.

Nobody wants to read anything.

Let me repeat that.

Nobody – not even your dog or your mother – has the slightest interest in your commercial for Rice Crispies or Delco batteries or Preparation H.

Nor does anybody care about your one-act play, your Facebook page or your new sesame chicken joint at Canal and Tchoupitoulas.

It isn’t that people are mean or cruel.

They’re just busy.

Nobody wants to read your shit.

What’s the answer?