When I first released the manuscript that became Creative Doing, it was on Gumroad under the title There Is No Right Way to Do This. It was a PDF I sold for $29.99 CAD. The first 22 people to buy it were my friends. Out of the first 50, I don’t recognize three people’s email addresses. In other words, I knew 94% of the first 50 buyers. One lesson I learned early in my career: prioritize collecting and keeping customer data.

As I continued promoting, more people I didn’t know bought it—a good sign of organic growth. Eventually, I signed a publishing deal with Holloway, took No Right Way off Gumroad, and expanded and revised it to become Creative Doing. 

As I’m writing this, over 5,000 people have bought copies (here was a post from 3,000)—and I’ve easily given away hundreds of gift copies to friends and strangers.

While I have the customer data of maybe 10% of my readers (the ones who bought through the Holloway reader), many have also bought through Amazon or other platforms. I no longer know the vast majority of them. But if my friends hadn’t been so supportive to start with, and contributed to my book’s sales history, maybe I wouldn’t have felt the confidence to approach Holloway.

If you’re looking to launch something new, there are many worse places you could start with than friends. You already know them, they trust you, and they want you to win. Bring it up in 1-1 conversations. Share on your social networks, more than once.

Be clear that you’re not obligating friends to buy. Say it and leave it in the wind. Whatever they contribute is an expression of their generosity.

My new work, The Consistency Journal, is available for pre-order. Many of my friends, once again, have contributed. Thank you.