Aphorisms Review Drive

New exhortation dropped.

Aphorisms for Artists has been out in the world for a week. Folks have been sending me photos of the book in their hands and on their shelves. I heard last night from a friend and art career coach that she’s already citing it to her clients. I’m grateful. And I have a favor to ask.

One of the things that we learned from the dissolution of Pitchfork is that Kids These Days™ do not put much stock in the reviews of individual critics. They prefer the aggregate reviews of consumers and the endorsements of influencers. That means it is of considerable importance to get such reviews going. (I have no access to influencers and don’t count as one myself.)

Social psychology tells us regarding crowds that if no one acts, everyone else is inclined not to take action, but if anyone acts, everyone else is inclined to take action. So I’m hoping that I can persuade some Aphorisms readers to write a review of the book at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Goodreads is also a thing. Even just one review showing up at each of those sites would have enormous downstream effects. It’s like compound interest—the sooner and bigger it happens, the more the magnified the results over time.

If you’re not yet an Aphorisms reader, I think you’d enjoy becoming one. Now that I’ve been spending time the Allworth edition, it reminds me more than anything else of the Enchiridion. The wisdom, set down with such plainspoken force, seems at once to come out of another time yet apply to all times and persons. Certainly not everything therein will be a perfect fit for every artist. But the ethos of the thing is such that having it as a studio companion is bound to be salutary.

Thanks for considering it.

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We are in the midst of an Asynchronous Studio Book Club reading of Totality: Abstraction and Meaning in the Art of Barnett Newman by Michael Schreyach. Obtain your copy and jump in. For future titles, see the ASBC schedule.

Dissident Muse’s first publication, Backseat Driver by James Croak, is available now at Amazon.

Aphorisms for Artists: 100 Ways Toward Better Art by Walter Darby Bannard is out now at Allworth Press. More information is available at the site for the book. If you own it already, thank you; please consider reviewing the book at Amazon or B&N.