Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon

"Show Your Work!" is about sharing your creative journey.

Austin Kleon suggests that by sharing your process, not just the final product, you build a stronger connection with your audience. The book provides practical tips on using social media to engage with others and find your creative tribe.

The top 10 takeaways

1. Think like a beginner
2. Document your process
3. Share something small every day
4. Curate other creators' work
5. Become a better storyteller
6. Teach others what you know
7. Value quality over quantity
8. Be prepared for criticism
9. Do more of what you want to do
10. Keep moving forward

1. Think like a beginner

Anyone can share their work online.

You don't need to ask for permission. You don't need credentials. You don't even need to be a professional. The best creative ideas often come from a group of amateurs who choose the internet as their playground to learn and explore. Regular people who get obsessed and think out loud about something.

The best way to get started showing your work is to:

• Think about what you want to learn
• Commit to learning it in public
• Find out what others in the field are sharing
• Contribute by sharing what others aren't sharing

If your work isn't online, it doesn't exist.

2. Document your process

Your "work" is more than your finished pieces.

The work you put into making these pieces every day is your work, too. When you document and share your process, you invite people to an ongoing connection with you and your work. Astronaut Chris Hadfield became famous by regularly sharing how to do everyday activities in space.

Document. Don't create.

3. Share something small every day

At the end of each day, find one piece of your process you can share.

Sharing imperfect and unfinished work is a great way to get feedback and improve it. Not everything you share needs to be highly polished. As long as it's helpful or entertaining, sharing is a generous act.

And over time, some of these daily dispatches will turn into more refined ideas that form the basis for bigger projects.

4. Curate other creators' work

The world around you influences your taste. And your taste influences your work.

If you're not ready to share your work yet, share your taste in other people's work. People can get a decent picture of who you are, what you care about, and where you're going based on your influences.

Sometimes even more than from your work alone.

Being open and honest about what you like is the best way to connect with others who like the same things. Always credit your sources, attribute the people who helped you find them, and provide context.

Tell people why they should care.

5. Become a better storyteller

The story you tell about your work changes how people feel about it.

Every presentation, essay, cover letter or fund-raising campaign is a pitch. And every good pitch is a story in three acts:

1. Past: Where have you been? What do you want? What have you done to get it?
2. Present: Where are you now? Show how you worked hard to get there and that you used almost all your resources.
3. Future: Where are you going? How exactly can the person you're pitching to help you get there?

The listener becomes the hero of your story and gets to decide where it ends.

6. Teach others what you know

What can you share about your process that's informative, educational and promotional?

The moment you learn something, teach it to others. This solidifies what you've learned in your brain. Teaching provides feedback, which helps to improve your understanding, so you can teach even better next time. And when you teach someone how you work, you generate more interest in your work.

Create tutorials and point people to useful resources and reference materials.

7. Value quality over quantity

Quality connections are more valuable than the number of your followers or subscribers.

When you share your work online, you'll find your real peers:

• People who share your obsession
• People who are on the same mission
• People with whom you share mutual respect

Do everything in your power to nurture your relationships with them.

8. Be prepared for criticism

The more work you put out, the more you realize criticism can't hurt you.

You can't control other people's responses, only your reaction to them. If you're afraid of criticism, don't share anything that's too personal or sensitive. Don't feed the trolls.

Remember your work is something you do, not who you are.

9. Do more of what you want to do

Your work needs to make a living, so you can do more of it.

Donations, crowdfunding or a traditional Buy Button can help you achieve this. Even if you go for conventional sales, remember to:

• Be open about your process
• Connect with your audience
• Ask them to support you by buying what you're selling

Start a mailing list to establish a direct channel between you and your audience. Email has been around forever and it won't go anytime soon. Everyone has an email address. And everyone reads emails. The people who sign up for your email list will be your biggest supporters.

Say 'yes' to opportunities that allow you to do more of the work you want to do.

Say 'no' to opportunities that might bring in more money but less of the work you want to do.

10. Keep moving forward

Success today doesn't guarantee success tomorrow.

So, use the end of one project to start the next one. Woody Allen starts writing his next script the day he finishes editing. But don't forget to rest either. Take practical sabbaticals: daily, weekly or monthly breaks where you step away from your work completely. This could be when you commute, exercise or explore nature.

Don't be content with mastery. Push yourself to become a student again. Throw out old work to make room for new. Look for the next thing you want to learn. Then commit to doing it publicly.

Keep moving forward.