Even if you build it, they won't come

As you sip your 3rd cup of coffee, you quietly say to yourself, “if I build it, they will come.” You’ve been saying this phrase for months or maybe years as you build. It’s great for motivation, isn’t it? Unfortunately, it’s not true. It doesn’t matter if you build it. Even if what you’ve built is amazing, no one will just “come.” In fact, the majority of people you know won’t engage. Not your family. Not your best friends. Not even the people who said they couldn’t wait to read the novel you wrote to escape the pain of your breakup. They might not even watch the first music video you made from the album you spent your gap year writing.

Often the people you want to show your work to most, won’t care about it. I mean, they might be proud of your accomplishment, but not proud enough to spend time reviewing it.

As a creator, I’ve faced this issue in every medium I’ve created in. My heart still hurts when my best friend from years ago couldn’t stay an extra thirty minutes to finish listening to an album I had spent 18 months on. It hurts so much that if I had the power to, I would make it so he couldn’t hear it even if he ever wanted to.

And the novel I finally finished has only been read by two of the 15 people I gave copies to. We could argue that the book sucks, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t, although I could be delusional. The people that have read it seemed to really like it, and not in a fake way. The other people all have their reasons for why they haven’t or can’t read it, and that’s fine. But it still hurts. And it definitely makes me think it MUST be because the book sucks.

I’m not sure if the saying “if you build it, they will come” is just from that Kevin Costner movie, or if it’s from some earlier source. Sure, I could ask ChatGPT or look it up, but where’s the fun in that? And it doesn’t help me make the main point of this post. So, let’s just assume it’s always been around. It’s a nice phrase, but the reality is you have to do far more than “build” it before people will come.

My wife and I wrote a now popular Japanese textbook series called, “Japanese From Zero!” and for years it sold maybe 50 copies a month. It wasn’t until I made a video series on YouTube that essentially taught everything in the books, did anyone actually “come”. Since creating the video series that essentially is a 24-hour non-stop promotion for the books, we’ve sold over 500,000 copies. People even sometimes ask for my autograph on their personal copy, of all things, a Japanese textbook.

And this rule isn’t just from my experience. The concept of “even if you build it, they won’t come” is viewable all around us. Just look at how much the most well-known companies spend yearly on advertising. If just building it worked, Apple wouldn’t spend millions (billions?) on ads. How often in your life have you seen commercials for Coca-Cola? How many stadiums are named by brands just hoping you hear their name and remember they exist?

Step one is ALWAYS “build it”. But if you want people to come, the next step is always promotion. The brother of one of my friends saw on Tik Tok how you could make an adult coloring book and make thousands of dollars a month. The market for adult coloring books is much bigger than you would expect. I was pretty shocked as he showed me many examples of books selling thousands of copies a month. He was so excited that he put together four nearly complete coloring books with catchy phrases and concepts that appeal to adults. He was stuck at the final phase of actually getting the books printed and on Amazon. I’m a sucker for someone trying to break away from the matrix, so I spent a few hours using my skills to get his first book ready for release.

After we pressed the final approval for publishing, “Just Fuckn Buy Me! Your Mamma Would: Inspirational & Motivational Curse Word Coloring Book for Adults: Swearing Coloring Book Pages for Stress Relief”, it only took a few days for it to show up on Amazon. As a veteran of releasing books, I think I’ve put out 14 so far, I suggested he order a few copies and start coloring in videos on TikTok and YouTube. As he himself, an older man, perfectly fit the role as “an adult” he would be a great model to show that it’s a fun book to color in.

I further explained that he had to make coloring videos daily or a few times a week at least or no one would buy the book. The result of his efforts was that no one bought his book. He didn’t even buy one for himself, although he did get one sucker to buy it - me. I was vested at this point, so I wanted to see the end result. It looked pretty good, except for a page or two that needed to be fixed due to low resolution images. But he didn’t seem interested in fixing it unfortunately. But in the end, for him, it didn’t matter. The only chance anyone, besides me, will ever buy that book are people reading this article buying a copy out of pure curiosity.

So, don’t give up on your project. But be aware that the “building” part isn’t the end - it’s the beginning. If you want to sell books for 20+ years like I have, then you have to promote. And the promotion never stops. I would of course also suggest constantly improving your product. After all, not many people would buy an iPhone 3 more than a decade after its release, and you can bet Toyota’s sales would stop dead if they stopped all advertising.

So, let’s get to it guys! What have you got cooking?