The song belongs to they who listen: My views on non-aggressive communication

Hi.

Most people today are dominated and manipulated by the mass media, and they like it that way. A few people, myself included, are not, and don’t.

Specifically, what I don’t like is aggressive promotion. In the western models of marketing and advertising, even management generally, even the terminology is inherited from war. Campaigns. Strengths. Weaknesses. Competition. Brand building. Banners. Logos. All these are concepts inherited from centuries of western warmongering.

It’s not that we in Asia, India in particular, never waged war or committed violent acts. Of course we did. But we also birthed and nurtured some of the greatest pacificists in human history. India is perhaps the only nation where more religions have originated and flourished than any other place on the planet. And despite modern perversions and politicizations, the essence of all these religions when they began was peace and harmony.

Still, each to his or her own way of thinking. If the west chooses to promote its brands, products, services, companies, even individuals today, as aggressively as it once promoted its kings, wars, territorial acquisitions, empires…well, that’s one way of doing things. I personally think it’s an unnecessarily violent, aggressive and futile way.

So what’s my way?

Well, it isn’t original to me. Nothing really is, as any intelligent student of history knows.

I don’t claim to have created or devised anything new, merely to have come up with something that I personally can live with and work with.

A creed to live by.

In some ways I’ve tried to implement it all my life, but never been clear enough in my thinking to set it down just so, in so many words.

Now I believe I can.

I believe in non-aggressive communication.

What does that mean?

Simply this, in one sentence:

The song belongs to they who listen.

If that sounds more like a line from a song lyric than a marketing philosophy, well, let me explain a bit.

It means that I don’t believe in promoting myself or my work to anybody who hasn’t already expressed an interest.

No forced conversions. No reaching out through mass media to people who aren’t aware of me, or my books. No book launches and media interviews. No public events. No advertising. No book promotions of any kind.

It’s upto the reader to discover me and my work on their own, over time, in their own way. It’s not upto me to choose how that will happen, nor is it my place to get out there and get in the faces of those potential readers.

In fact, I take the view that I only have so many readers at present. If that number increases, so be it. I’m content with whatever number reads my work already. I do not seek out anymore.

The song belongs to they who listen.

In other words, I’m like a guy sitting in my house, strumming my sitar, and singing the classical blues. If you happen to know me and my work and want to listen in, then I’ll welcome you. But I will not come out there on the street, into the marketplace and start rocking to rouse the neighbourhood.

You have to already want to listen to my ’songs’, so to speak, in order to hear them.

Once you do enjoy listening to my ’songs’, so to speak, I will communicate openly and freely with you. I’m accessible 24/7 to my readers, via this website, via my Facebook page, via the Epic India Group and AKB Newsletter, via Shelfari and Goodreads.

I doubt there are many authors who are as forthcoming with their readers and as accessible as I am.

Because, let’s face it, they are my readers, and therefore we’re already in a professional relationship, by their choice.

They’re not ‘target audiences’ or ‘potential customers’ or any of that marketing BS. They’re just people who happen to have discovered my work, read it, and like it enough to want to stay in touch with me.

And there are only a few of them.

Let’s face it. I don’t believe that the whole world is my ‘market’ or ‘audience’ or all those outdated terms.

I believe that good books find their way into good hands, even if it takes a while.

I believe that an author can only have so many readers, no more, and those readers are readers who genuinely enjoy the work, and don’t care about the public profile, or lack of it, of the author.

For that matter, some of the best authors are dead and unable for interviews permanently. That doesn’t detract from their books and their book sales.

In contrast, some of the so-called great authors of the world shamelessly promote themselves and their books and that has nothing to do with the quality of their books, it’s an ego massage they probably want and they’re welcome to it.

I don’t get my kicks through publicity or seeing my name in print. I cringe when I see my name in print and if I could, I’d not publish my books in my name either–I’d just leave my name off them.

Yes, I go to extremes. That’s me.

But this is what I believe. And the philosophy I espouse.

Over the years, I’ve refused interviews with some of the most prominent publications in the world, and always been proud of the fact.

I’ll continue to do so.

And now, I know what to call it.

Non-aggressive communication.

Because, ultimately, I don’t want people coming to listen to my ‘music’ so to speak because they read about me in some newspaper or magazine. I want them to come in because they happened to be listening at the right time in the right place and because their hearts were still innocent and open to new experiences.

And finally, I want them to stay and listen because they love my ‘music’.

The song belongs to those who listen.

And admission is always free.

Jun 21, 2008 | Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »