Austin Kleon

Keep Working. Keep Playing. Keep Creating. In his previous books, Austin Kleon gave readers the keys to unlock their creativity and showed them how to become known. Now he offers his most inspiring work yet, with ten simple rules for how to stay creative, focused, and true to yourself, for life. The creative life is not a linear journey to the finish line, it's a loop, so find a daily routine, because today is the only day that matters. Disconnect from the world to connect with yourself, sometimes you just have to switch into airplane mode. Keep Going celebrates getting outdoors and taking a walk (as director Ingmar Bergman told his daughter, "The demons hate fresh air"). Pay attention, and especially pay attention to what you pay attention to. Worry less about getting things done, and more about the worth of what you're doing. Instead of focusing on making your mark, work to leave things better than you found them. “Keep Going” and its timeless, practical, and ethical principles are for anyone trying to sustain a meaningful and productive life. “Keep Going” shows you how to stay true to and focused on your own creative vision when the world seems out of control. In ten heavily illustrated, inspiring chapters, bestselling author Austin Kleon offers advice, stories, and anecdotes that teach you how to persist in doing work that helps make a world worth living in.

In his New York Times bestseller “Steal Like an Artist”, Austin Kleon showed readers how to unlock their creativity by "stealing" from the community of other movers and shakers. Now, in an even more forward-thinking and necessary book, he shows how to take that critical next step on a creative journey-getting known. Show Your Work! is about why generosity trumps genius. It's about getting findable, about using the network instead of wasting time "networking." It's not self-promotion, it's self-discovery, let others into your process, then let them steal from you. Filled with illustrations, quotes, stories, and examples, Show Your Work! offers ten transformative rules for being open, generous, brave, productive. In chapters such as “You Don't Have to Be a Genius, Share Something Small Every Day, and Stick Around”, Kleon creates a user's manual for embracing the communal nature of creativity, what he calls the "ecology of talent." From broader life lessons about work (you can't find your voice if you don't use it) to the etiquette of sharing-and the dangers of oversharing-to the practicalities of Internet life (build a good domain name, give credit when credit is due), it's an inspiring manifesto for succeeding as any kind of artist or entrepreneur in the digital age. Contents: 1. You don't have to be a genius. 2. Think process, not product. 3. Share something small every day. 4. Open up your cabinet of curiosities. 5. Tell good stories. 6. Teach what you know. 7. Don't turn into human spam. 8. Learn to take a punch. 9. Sell out. 10. Stick around.

Unlock your creativity. An inspiring guide to creativity in the digital age, “Steal Like an Artist” presents ten transformative principles that will help readers discover their artistic side and build a more creative life. Nothing is original, so embrace influence, school yourself through the work of others, remix and reimagine to discover your own path. Follow interests wherever they take you, what feels like a hobby may turn into you life's work. Forget the old cliché about writing what you know: Instead, write the book you want to read, make the movie you want to watch. And finally, stay Smart, stay out of debt, and risk being boring in the everyday world so that you have the space to be wild and daring in your imagination and your work.