If you make something that is objectively good, defined by the fact that it is of a high quality that can be seen by an array of people even if it’s not their cup of tea, then there is mathematic certainty that there is an audience for that work.
- the audience of potential true fans is not big enough to be found easily, meaning you will have to spend a long time, significant funds, and a lot of effort to find them.
- the potential audience might be too small to justify a product at the price point you are charging. It’s hard to sell a $5 product to a 100 person audience.
- you aren’t releasing products in the frequency necessary to succeed with the potential audience.
- the runway you have given yourself isn’t long enough to find success, and you run out of money.
- you do not have enough material to rise above the noise and be found by the people who are looking for you.
- you are not finding new people to add into your ecosystem on a regular basis
- you aren’t finding enough people on a regular basis to add into your ecosystem. This is DIFFERENT from the above.
- you do not have an effective process to show those people why they should care about you
- you are looking in the wrong places
- you are talking to the wrong people
- you are building the wrong thing for the people you want to serve
- your voice is not honed to deliver a consistent experience to the readers you are attracting to tell them your work is right for them.
- you don’t spend enough time connecting to those people you attract
- you simply haven’t been doing it for long enough to catch on
This assumes that a wide swath of people can look at your work and say that it is good (and mean it), even if they cannot articulate why or even if it is not their jam. I’m not just talking about people who love you too much not to lie to you. I’m talking about new people who don’t like you enough to lie to you.
The question is, where is your problem? It is in making objectively good products, or is it in one of the areas above?
IDK the answer, but those are the major areas that I see consistently when it comes to creative folks. Audit every piece of that equation and make sure you are solid at every piece of it because I guarantee you have a fault somewhere in that chain. It’s important to be objective with this, too. Lying only hurts yourself. If you don’t know the answer to one of these questions, then do some digging. I don’t know is not an appropriate answer, and almost always if you don’t know, the answer is probably you need to work on that problem with focused intention.
Once you are making a good product, consistently, for the right people, in the right place, and working to find new people consistently…then you WILL have growth. If you’re not getting it, then something’s broken, and only one part of it is that your work isn’t very good. More importantly, when something is broken, you don’t throw it out. You work to repair it, and almost nothing is beyond repair with a little elbow grease.
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