A few weeks later

Oh, my. It’s been six weeks since the official book release at Dutch Design Week, and I haven’t updated my devoted mailing list about it.

Shame on me.

In a nutshell, it was a much bigger success than I anticipated. I expected around 15-20 people — mostly friends and family — to attend. This low bar was set in part by my own humility, as well as words of warning from both my publisher (“These types of things quickly turn into having a drink with friends.”) and the DDW committee:

“In previous years participants have shared with us that events such as seminars sometimes struggled to find enough visitors. Can you share with us how you plan on reaching your audience? We want to make sure that your investment to participate will be worthwhile.”

At first, a handful of people — mostly friends and relatives — trickled in. But to my surprise, the trickle turned into a solid stream of strangers, slowly filling up the venue. A minute or two before go-time, 80 faces eagerly awaited my story.

For someone who spent most of his career on the safe side of the screen (tucked away behind it), it was a little frightening. But reports on the ground said I did OK — occasionally speaking a little too fast, but other than that, I got my story across.

I’ll tell you more about that story in a later update.

When my talk (and Donald Roos, the other host's talk) concluded, I was again surprised to see a line form at our improvised sales desk. People wanted to buy the book! All 30 physical copies I brought sold out.

Indeed, I was over the moon.

Enjoy some of the event photos below, taken by the talented Evy Hachmang (website — Instagram).

Being Creative is the Easy Part at Dutch Design Week 2024

So, how is it going now?

People keep asking me how the book is doing. I have no idea. Apparently, publishers update authors about sales four times per year. Since the book launched in October, I’m still anticipating that first update, which is expected to hit my inbox sometime in December.

That’s all I have.

In a future update, I’ll talk about the talk (heh), reveal future plans for the book and speaking engagement, and discuss a nice little side project Donald Roos and I are cooking up.

Talk soon.