Hit or Miss? It's All About Who's Singing

I just noticed that and have absolutely no idea how that happened. lol. I was like, WHAT? In any event, I have removed the repeated part. As for the Stephen King story that's a perfect example. Richard Bachman is Stephen King. But Steven King will get read and Richard Bachman? It's Richard Bachman who?

@porwest I found it quite interesting that even he couldn't sell under another name.

@just4him Until people got suspicious at some point and he came out and said it was him. Then suddenly the books flew off the shelves. It makes you think, if they couldn't fly off the shelves when they were by Richard Bachman, why did they fly off the shelves when people realized it was Stephen King? Did the stories suddenly become worth reading just because of who wrote them, or did people only avoid the good story because the person who wrote them was unknown?

This is my sentiment exactly. Valerie reminded me of the Stephen King story when he wrote a few books under the pen name Richard Bachman wondering if his work or his name was what sold his books. The Bachman books did not sell well until he revealed that he was Richard Bachman, and when he did, they became best sellers.

@porwest I've read many Stephen King books but probably would have bypassed them if they were under a different name.

@Marilynda1225 That can be said about a lot of authors. I tended to be more open to new talent, but that was partly due to my editing days for FrightNet Online Magazine where you were exposed to a lot of unknowns who were quite good, and you had a platform to promote them. Michael Laimo was a big contributor to FrightNet and I even published one of his stories in the anthology Dark Whispers I edited. He was relatively unknown at the time and went on to have two TV movies made from his books, got published several times by our contributing editor, Don D'Auria who was the editor at Dorchester Publishing's Leisure Horror line... Good talent is out there. Unfortunately, it often takes someone in a position to show it to have it heard or read. In a place like FrightNet, your work could comfortably sit between other works by more famous authors who were published there like Peter Straub, Douglas Clegg, and people like that.

@porwest I agree!

I tend to think of this often when I hear a great song by an unknown and wonder, what if Dua Lipa did this? Or Swift? Or Lady Gaga? Would it hit? I think a lot of these unknown songs are unknown because the person who wrote and performed them are unknown, and that sometimes a good song becomes a good song in our minds only because we like the performer who does them. Not always, but it does make me wonder sometimes.

@kareng Valerie reminded me of the Stephen King story when he wrote under the pen name Richard Bachman wondering if it was the books or the author selling his books. The Bachman books only became best sellers when he revealed it was him who wrote them. The stories didn't suddenly become better. They were already good. But no one cared because Stephen King's name wasn't on them.

I don't know. I listen to a LOT of great music that lives in the dark shadows. None of it gets heard because the person who wrote it and performed it happens to not be someone famous. At the same time, there are a great many musicians out there like Elton John and Billy Joel that simply wrote great songs. But I do wonder, if someone else wrote and performed Piano Man, would it be the classic it is today without Billy Joel propelling it out to the masses because he was already famous? I wonder. Take this song, "Dive." I would take a wild guess that if Taylor Swift wrote and released this song by Lainey Wright, it would be a smash hit. But because it's Lainey Wright, hardly anyone even knows it exists.

Yep. I think that is a HUGE part of it. People are familiar with certain people, and they gravitate towards what they know. It's that simple, really. Few people go looking for what they DON'T know. So, for those talented people who are unknown? It is MUCH harder for them, even if what they are doing is REALLY good. I find the same issue when it comes to my blogs. If I am not Shapiro or a part of Breitbart, or have a large platform to publish on? I am practically invisible even if I have a lot to say that is as good or better than what the big guys are saying. It's just the way it is.

I think he's just doing his own thing and having fun with it as opposed to trying to be necessarily "good." At his age, and with his money, he doesn't need to be great. But he can afford to have all the fun he wants.

@porwest that's true. he is at the place and age where he doesn't need to care or to be under the stress.

@grenery8 I'd like to be at a place like that. Just do your thing, be happy, and if a few people like it? Great. All the more fun.

It sounds familiar but it doesn't really ring a bell for me. I do remember a VERY old movie by the name, "Don't Look Back." It was a horror movie.