How Do You Sell Yourself?

I spent last weekend at the Canton Arts Festival.  As one of the vendors, I spent a lot of time selling my books which was quite rewarding and fun.  I also learned a lot and spent a lot of time networking.  In fact the best part of the weekend was the information that I learned that will help me continue to help children, parents and counselors through the sales of my book.

One thing I noticed was that not everyone at the festival took advantage of the environment in the same way.  Maybe it’s because I’m such a newbie and still feel there is a whole world out there to learn about, but I tend to view every opportunity like this as a chance to learn more about how other authors sell books.  One individual who was not only delightful but also a wealth of information was Deanna  K. Klingel.  She had the booth right next to me and I believe God must have positioned her there just so I could pick her brain about what has and hasn’t worked for her.  She has only been selling her books at festivals for fourteen months but she is a natural saleswoman.  Don’t get me wrong, she’s not pushy or annoying or overbearing.  In fact just the opposite.  She embodies all the best qualities of a great servant.  Deanna has written two YA books that are set during the Civil War.  Attending the Canton Literary Festival was really out of the norm for her.  She told me she usually goes to Civil War Enactments and that there is pretty much one every weekend that she travels to.  She has definitely found her niche.  She dresses the part at the enactments of a settler and her mission, really the reward for her, is enticing reluctant readers to find the joy of reading  a book that is engaging as well as informative.  She told me with great pride of parents who had emailed her to tell her that their child who hated to read, had stayed up all night reading her book.  There were a lot of authors at the festival who put their books out on the table and sat back waiting for the magic to happen.  Not Deanna.  She knew who her audience was (middle and high school students ), and she called them over to her booth where she gave them a card and a bookmark and encouraged them to look at her book.  Parents loved the educational and wholesome nature of her books.  Students were drawn to the adventure of the story.  And Deanna sold books.  Not as many as at the enactments she told me, but still she sold books while many others sat around.

Here’s a synopsis of the great things I learned from Deanna:

·    Have a passion and a mission bigger than just selling a lot of books.  For Deanna, this was engaging reluctant readers in a good story.  It was introducing middle schoolers to the joy of reading through exciting but wholesome stories.

·    Know your niche and focus on that.  Don’t be a generalist.  For Deanna, this was middle and high school students (especially home schooled students) and the civil war era.

·    Be engaging and interactive.  Don’t just sit back and wait for a sale to take place.  Develop a relationship with your potential clients.

·    Be generous and serve others.  Not only did Deanna have something to give every person who stopped at her booth, she gave me lots of information and insight into the history of writing and publishing her work.

Truly, the best part of the festival for me was developing and nurturing relationships.  I had a conversation recently with someone who told me that they couldn't imagine themselves selling anything, it was so foreign to their nature.  But when I told her to think of selling as helping; sharing your gift with others who want and need it, her attitude changed.  This is what good selling is all about and Deanna was relationship selling personified.  What is your experience with sales?  Do you view sales as helping others or as pushing someone into buying something they don't want?  We're all selling something, the question is, "How do you do it?"

BE DO HAVE...Are You Working The Plan Backwards?

The weekend of May 19th and 20th,  I'll be participating in the Canton Arts Festival, hosting a booth and selling my books.  I've been invited to participate before but it is only this year that I've felt I had enough of a product to justify it.  Now that I have three books that I've authored I am ready to take it on. I hope you will come out and see me and Wyatt.  I'll be sharing the booth with Kathy Brunner whose recent book, Finding Your Fire: How To Get Fired Up Not Burned Out,  will be reviewed on this blog next week.  It's a great read!  In addition, Lacey the therapy dog in real life will be joining us for part of the time.  Lacey is a love and a recent addition to Wyatt's friends.  Come out and meet her in person before you read about her in Wyatt's next book--Wyatt Goes To Kindergarten.  


It's really an exciting time and I'm not sure that almost three years ago when I decided to BE an author instead of a someday-author or a wanna-be-author or a wish-I-was-one-author, I had any idea I'd be able to accomplish so much.  I look back on the journey and while it's been a ton of work it has been exhilarating.  It has also taken a total shift in my mindset, my perspective to accomplish it, so if you are reading this and thinking, "Well it worked for you, but I'd never be able to accomplish something like that," please read on because I stood solidly in your shoes for years.

One of the most common statements I have heard from others as I am out talking about writing my books or establishing my blog or developing a business as a trainer, is “I have a story that I want to write but I just haven’t got the time.” Or, “I’d like to start my own business but I have a full-time day job now.” There are a lot of reasons that people give for not getting around to fulfilling their dream. Sometimes it’s because they have a family and it just keeps them too busy. Sometimes it’s because they have a full-time job and when they retire they’ll get around to it. Sometimes it’s because they don’t have the financial resources and someday when they make more money, inherit some money or their ship otherwise comes sailing in... well, they’ll do it then. Do  you believe those excuses? Do you make them yourself?  I did. I've made them all.  Probably the main excuse I made was that I just didn't know how to do it and if someone would just show me, well then I'd be right on it.  Of course no one ever did because I never asked.  All of these statements are just excuses and not because the person making them is lazy or unmotivated.  They are excuses because you are putting the cart before the horse.

Successful people understand that to be successful you must: BE. DO. HAVE. Unsuccessful people believe that the order is: HAVE. DO. BE. Unsuccessful people wait to HAVE the time or HAVE the resources or HAVE the right contacts. Successful people know that in order to be successful you must first change your mindset and BE what it is you want to be.  When I made the decision to be an author,  I started by writing in my journal everyday, "I am an author who is publishing and selling books."  The more I wrote it, the more I believed it, the more I talked about it, the more I searched for ways to make it happen, the more I spent time writing.  Rather than waiting to have what I needed to accomplish my dream, I began by believing and acting like I was the dream.   No matter whether you want to be an author, or a musician or a CEO of your own company, you must first be what it is that you want to be not wait for the dream to appear fully realized.   Recognize that your excuses are just that. If your goal is to write a book and you believe you don’t have time, ask yourself how many books you wrote before you had children... before you found your first full time job... during your last vacation time, etc. Creating the life you want to have first involves visioning it, developing goals and then taking action on them. BE the person God meant you to be. DO the necessary steps and then expect that you will HAVE the success you envisioned. Don’t wait to HAVE the time, the relationships, the resources or you will never move forward because you are working the plan backwards.

What about you?  Are you BEING who you want to be now?  Or are you waiting to HAVE the time, resources etc?  How's that plan working for you?