The WGA recently achieved a new contract with the Producers. My brother and sister members will not be marching the picket lines as we did a decade ago. That’s great news. You might wonder why writers still work in traditional media, given the ease of production and the amazing audiences for online content. A paycheck and health insurance are two reasons, but the bigger reason is marketing.

Hollywood isn’t so much about making great content anymore. It’s about marketing good content. Writers and other creative types climb that ladder, often giving up creative control, but knowing their work will be marketed by pros to an increasingly elusive audience.

The creative side of the coin often pokes fun at the “suits” in marketing. Just calling them “suits” disparages them as soulless automatons that lack the creative vision of those who wear strategically tattered jeans (or soiled jeans as Nordstrom is now selling). But without marketing, no one will learn about your work. Even indie-authors have to market. I keep forgetting that and that’s why one of my books, “Bio-Adversity,” still doesn’t have a single review. And it’s a pretty good story.

Artists are often distracted by the new shiny idea and typically forget to market the one they’ve already finished. Orson Welles habitually left projects for others to complete. Indie-filmmakers budget for production, steal money from post, and never even think about the cost of marketing, film festivals, and distribution. But if audiences don’t know about your work, they’ll never buy it no matter how great it is. Even word-of-mouth has to be sparked before it can turn into a fire.

You have to take off the comfy jeans and put on the scratchy suit. It’s part of the job.