Failure Friday #30: Reddit Found My Blind Spots
I got roasted on Reddit for my coloring book and it was enlightening
When I launched the Failure Friday coloring book last week, it sold a couple dozen copies on the first day. But then it stalled. So I decided to head to Reddit and get some candid feedback. (FWIW, you can always count on people who hide behind the anonymity of an avatar both there and on X to give you pure honest feedback — which is what I wanted and received.)
When I created the coloring book, I used my words to tell my story but I used AI to help me generate the images. I was curious about how people felt about that, especially in the subreddit of r/AdultColoring.
A few people pointed out that they are 100% anti-AI anything.
Others pointed out that I was quick to emphasize that the words were mine, yet much more casual about using AI for the illustrations. As if I were valuing one art form over another.
But the thing that really stuck with me was when one person pointed out that the AI image generator tool that I used was most likely trained on other artists’ work and so every time it makes an image, it borrows/steals from artists who are not getting any royalties.
One person even went as far as asking me how I would feel if someone did that with my writing. Ironically, it already happened. While teaching at UC Berkeley Extension, a student copied content from my slides almost verbatim into a LinkedIn post without attribution.
My next class was on plagiarism and copyright infringement.
So their point was not lost on me, but I still didn’t quite see it the way they did.
The lesson I hadn’t thought about
Bottom line, I just didn’t see it the same way. Yet as an artist who draws and paints, I totally get the feedback. However, to me the coloring book was just a delivery mechanism of the overall message.
That was my blind spot.
I viewed the illustrations as packaging for the message. But Redditors viewed the illustrations as part of the product. I was evaluating the book through the lens of a writer and they were evaluating it through the lens of artists.
Still curious…
What surprised me even more was learning how common AI-generated coloring books have become. AI-assisted creation is now one of the dominant methods used by new independent coloring-book creators.
One reviewer who manually examined Amazon's Top 100 coloring books concluded that AI-generated books were becoming a significant presence in bestseller rankings, though this was not a formal study.
ChatGPT’s estimate based on available information:
Yet that didn’t invalidate the criticism.
I still don’t know where I land on the copyright argument. AI has to be trained on something. Human artists learn by studying other artists too. But whether I agreed with Reddit wasn’t really the point.
I went to Reddit looking for feedback on a coloring book.
Instead, I discovered I had been evaluating my own product through a completely different lens than my audience.
The lesson wasn’t about AI. It was about assumptions.
What are your thoughts?