Read time: 3 min.

Two weeks ago, the book launched.

You know how that went. I've never experienced anything like it and I probably never will again for the first time.

But this week something different happened. Something quieter. And honestly, more meaningful.

I opened my analytics.

What I saw

The launch peak was gone. Obviously. That kind of energy doesn't sustain itself and it was never supposed to.

But the line didn't drop to zero. It didn't even come close.

Consistent. Steady. Over a hundred copies a day, two weeks after launch, without a new announcement, without waitlist excitement, without any of the energy that carries a launch week.

Just people finding the book, deciding they want it, and buying it.

I stared at that line for a while.

The truth behind the numbers

Everyone loves a launch week. The numbers are big, the energy is high, everything feels possible.

But launch week is borrowed excitement. It's the accumulation of months of anticipation finally releasing all at once. It tells you that people were waiting. It doesn't tell you whether what you built was worth waiting for.

Two weeks later does.

When the waitlist is gone and the announcement posts have been forgotten and the algorithm has moved on to something else, what remains is the truth of what you made. Either people are still finding it, still wanting it, still telling other people about it.

Or they aren't.

The line in my analytics this week told me everything launch week couldn't.

The only sustainable version

Here's the part I keep thinking about.

I'm not running ads. I'm not doing a second launch push. I'm just making content, the same way I always have, about things I genuinely find worth sharing.

And the people who find that content, who get something from it, who want to go deeper, they find their way to the book naturally. Not because I pushed them there. Because it was the obvious next step for someone who already wanted more.

That's the only sustainable version of selling anything.

Not a launch. Not a campaign. Just consistent value, over a long period of time, that earns the right to offer something more.

The launch was the peak. But the content is the engine.

And engines don't need peaks. They just need to keep running.

Still finding its people

I set out to write a book that people would find genuinely useful. Something you could pick up on a random Tuesday, flip to any page, and find something worth sitting with.

Two weeks in, strangers are doing exactly that.

Without any help from me. Without a push or a campaign or a reminder. Just people finding it, deciding it's worth their time, and passing it on.

I don't think I'll ever fully get used to that.

Much love,

— Martijn

P.S. If you haven't picked up a copy yet, the book is still very much available. The Art of Intentional Living: 101 Lessons from History's Greatest Minds. Link is here.