Special Projects // On finding the true fans and ignoring everything else // Craft and satisfaction

February 10, 2022 · reading

A blog post so good that I wished it was a book: Memberships Work by Craig, about his first 3 years as a writer who found his true fans with his membership site, SPECIAL PROJECTS (SP).

Craig’s community is beautifully, authentically self-serving:

As I wrote last year: The purpose of SP is to enable a continuous and rigorous production of book-shaped projects until I’m dead.

Craig wanted to write books. After years of running into walls through the traditional system, he crafted a micro-business around himself (which grew into a business-business) to be able to sustainably do so. 

He is very upfront about this in his promotional material:

This membership program is, at its core, like a mini npr — of course, there are perks, but the main reason to become a member should be: Craig, ya weird bird, I want to see more of your work in the world.

This is obviously the polar opposite of an outcome-oriented community, and it’s great. 

What I especially love is his description of how the membership setup has driven his creative development:

It’s not easy, the running of a membership program.

But it has inspired and catalyzed, for me, a sustained and vast interval of intense writing, photographing, bookmaking, and general “creative output.” 

It’s by far and away, consistently, unrelentingly, the most work I’ve ever put into anything. But I keep doing it. And want to continue doing it. The work carries with it a deep sense of fulfillment.

I also adore how willing he is to be suboptimal: 

Never look at subscription data more than once a quarter. And even then, don’t really look at it. Glance askance and not for long.

SPECIAL PROJECTS crested a line last year that I define as the “enough” line. Everything above that line is Good.

But I try to never gaze directly into the beating heart of those digits.

Books and education are the goals, not eternal, mythic GDP-style growth of membership revenue.

And, unsurprisingly, by giving more than he gets, he has ended up doing very well:

2019 worked out OK, and 2020 was a gangbusters bonanza. 2021 was the fine maturation of the machine of both memberships and creativity, and I’m more excited for 2022 than any year thus far. So, you know — THANK YOU. Geez. 

There’s so much beauty in Craig’s full post. It will re-inspire you to create the way you want to create (instead of how the market says you ought to). Give it a read.

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