“So Many Steves: Afternoons with Steve Martin”: https://bit.ly/3LC9kqA

Does anybody know about this?

I listened and quite enjoyed it, but it’s not worth $14.99. It’s a podcast, not an audiobook. How come nobody at Pushkin knows this?

The paradigm was established when Pushkin released “Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon”: https://bit.ly/3LD7KVk It had absolutely no impact, even though Simon revealed things heretofore unknown, like how ayahuasca changed his life. But almost nobody paid for it. If anything, we now live in a freemium universe. Or all you can eat for one price. There’s still an iTunes Store, but everybody who shops there is aged, because everybody who is younger and a true music fan has defected to a streaming outlet.

Now the Paul Simon audiobook was hobbled by Malcolm Gladwell. Who needs to be taken down a few pegs. Not only is he frequently plain wrong in his podcast “Revisionist History,” coming up with a premise and cherry-picking facts to prove it, his delivery has become offensive, like he’s God come down from the mountaintop and we should all pay attention. His slow speech, like an orator…nobody talks like that, he’s done too many corporate speeches. Furthermore, he’s not that knowledgeable about Simon, whereas Adam Gopnik is good friends with Steve Martin.

But “New Yorker” writer Gopnik, like Gladwell, comes up with a theory and then…it doesn’t all come together. Sure, Steve Martin walked away from comedy, but not completely. Rather than shed one life for another, Martin keeps building upon the lives he’s established.

Now Martin is an interesting character. Does anybody not like Steve Martin? But the fascinating thing is…he’s screwed up. We tend to think that our stars are superior, together. But when Martin talks about dating after his divorce, you’d think he’d be a king, but he was not.

And Martin talks about how he learned to be nice.

And at the advent, he talks about these e.e. cummings records that inspired him, and they might inspire you too.

And there are a few insights that might inspire you, that you might connect with, but this is more of an autobiography than anything else. Which is cool, but they shouldn’t have tried to make it something bigger in concept.

So do I recommend listening to this book?

Yes, you’ll enjoy it. But I absolutely cannot endorse purchasing it. Meaning very few people will ever hear it.

That’s the challenge today, getting people to be aware of something and partake of it. It’s nearly impossible. You don’t want to put up any barriers, any paywalls, only people inured to the old game do this. First get attention, there are a million ways to monetize if you do this. Silicon Valley empires have been built on this concept.

Pushkin should have found one sponsor for the entire project and released it as a podcast. Some huge company that wants its image burnished. After all, Steve Martin is not offensive. Gladwell shilled for Lexus, they’d be perfect for this. And then many people would listen to this audiobook and Lexus’s image would get a boost and it would be a win-win-win. For Pushkin, Lexus and the public.

Charge the public at your peril. There’s so much free entertainment. And then there are Spotify, Netflix, et al, which automatically pay for like their cell plan. It’s an incredible hurdle to get someone to pay up front for something unknown.

But people don’t understand this.

Just like they write books. Do you know how few people read these books? People always ask me when I’m going to write a book. NEVER! Why take two or three years to write something that might reach a fraction of the number of people I’m reaching right now. Fiction is one thing, but I don’t write fiction, and the dirty little secret is most fiction sells in four digits, not even ten thousand copies. Much less. You hear about these books, and then no one buys them. I’m not saying I’ll never do a compilation book, but to write something from scratch, that’s a fool’s errand!

But I’ve got a leg up. I’ve built an audience.

Today authors rely on the publisher, ain’t that a laugh, you’ve got to promote your book yourself. Hand sell it.

And Pushkin has no reputation as a publisher of audiobooks, no platform. Man, it takes eons to build your audience. So you’d better be invested for the long haul. So choose your options very wisely.

Just like the public.

They’re not going to buy Steve Martin’s audiobook.

What a waste.