▣ Marketing, the bane of my existance
0 Comments added to this post
I am not a salesman in any way. Therefore I don't like the marketing part of being an author. I wish it were enough to just create the book and the marketing would take care of itself, but unfortunately that doesn't happen. Today I'm addressing myself to some marketing issues. I just sent a press release out as part of that. The weather is not so good, snowy and cold and I am not anxious to go out to market so I'm using my computer as a marketing tool today.
For Memoirs writers: Has there been a time in your life when you've needed to sell something? Were you good at it? Was it a lemonade stand when you were a kid or was it selling magazines to help with college? Perhaps you ended up making a living by selling something. Tell us about it.
Selling:
I've never been good at selling anything. Partly that's because I'm shy and partly its because I see trying to sell something to someone as trying to take advantage of them. I remember the first time I went to a fair and walked down the midway where vendors called out to me to stop and play a game. I was moritified and embarrassed, didn't know how to say no but didn't want to play a game that I knew was a waste of money and time. I was embarrassed that attention had been called to me (shy), had a problem saying No when asked to do something (wanted to please), was annoyed at being called out to and hated the entire idea of selling because of this expirence.
It's different if I walk into a store to buy something. I wanted to find the item and I'll purchase it. If I worked in the store and someone brought the item to me, I'd gladly take their money. it was thier idea, not mine. If people come to me asking to buy my books, I'm glad, but if I must go to them, I have a problem with it. However, I've learned to do press releases when I need to (feeling uncomfortable all the while) and I've sold books at readings and booksigning knowing that the person wanted to learn about the books or they wouldn't be there.
Using the internet as a sales tool is a little better as I don't have to do face to face encounters with people but I am still shy and I still have a problem with sales.