Law of Fandom

BookEnds wrote about how to make your readers work for you in a recent post. Using readers as a marketing device reminded me of something else I read in my studies of Sun Tzu and the Art of War for my Campaign for E-Literacy. That is the following "constant factor":

The MORAL LAW causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.

That is the first constant factor Sun Tzu mentions. So, if it is mentioned first, there must be for a reason. That is, this advice is of a great importance. And it can be of great import for freelance marketing as well. Try reading the Moral Law as follows:

The LAW of FANDOM causes the readers to be in complete accord with their writer, so that they will follow her regardless of their lack of free-time, undismayed by any change in genre or style or series.

Actually, there are quite a few ways to play with Sun Tzu's wording. But all oddball fun aside, fans are everything to a writer. To succeed as a writer, a writer must find success with her fans. The trick is to find and keep those fans happy, and that takes time, effort, and thought, but the victory is well worth it in the end.