Be undeniably good

OK, so apparently this quote from Steve Martin has been going around for a few years already, but I just heard it yesterday for the first time.  No surprise that I'm late to the party.  In any case, here's his advice on how to succeed:

Be undeniably good. When people ask me how do you make it in show business or whatever, what I always tell them and nobody ever takes note of it ‘cuz it’s not the answer they wanted to hear — what they want to hear is here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script, here’s how you do this — but I always say, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” If somebody’s thinking, “How can I be really good?”, people are going to come to you. It’s much easier doing it that way than going to cocktail parties.

I'm relieved to hear that this approach is easier than the cocktail party route, since I, for one, am so tired of attending cocktail parties!

I think that what he said is excellent advice for anybody venturing into self-publishing:  simple, easy to remember, and perfectly clear.  Whatever you're doing, keep that in the forefront of your mind and good things will come.

Incidentally, I can't be the only person who suspects that writer Steve Martini gets a small, but measurable portion of his sales from people who erroneously thought his book was Steve Martin's.  Or am I?