"Selling" is Not a Dirty Word

It used to make me feel shame, now I just cringe a little.

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I wish my two weeks off were restful. They weren't. I spent Christmas Day until today, coughing almost non-stop. Five days ago, I was finally forced into going to the doctor with my husband. We are now on the mend, but it was no way to spend the holiday. I hope that all of you had a better time.

On top of that experience, my idea of hell is attending a book fair and selling my books in person. I even have trouble putting CTA's in my Instagram posts and newsletters. Until now, I've had trouble asking people to do things for me. It wasn't until I read a post by Arnold Schwarzenegger that I actually connected with some of the things he had to say about selling:

• "Your first customer is yourself."

• “You'll hit roadblocks and naysayers, and you'll need to sell yourself to stick with it and keep chasing that vision." Arnold says that getting over our hangups over selling will allow us to realize our vision and open doors.

• ·Create an alter-ego, Arnold suggests. If you're an introvert, create an extrovert who loves talking about yourself and your book and enjoys crowds of people.

  Kay Klotzbach does not enjoy discussing her books, but Kay Freeman can't shut up about them. At any party she attends, no one dares ask what she's currently working on because if they do, she will spend the entire time telling them about it.

• Practice selling yourself.

  Don't just rehearse your elevator pitch once or twice. Practice it hundreds of times, so when the time comes, you can give it ideally without thinking about it.

• Attend conferences and workshops in person sometimes, whether you want to or not.

  You might not be a joiner, but make yourself join writer's groups, take workshops, and participate. Yes, it's hard. I also have a difficult time with this, but always hiding behind a screen doesn't help you "sell."

• Hire someone else to talk about you and your books.

  If you don't like social media and refuse to sell yourself and your books, hire someone else to do it for you. However, you need to realize no one is going to do it better than you.

To practice what I preach, here we go…I have a new contemporary gothic romance on Kindle Unlimited, Leather Man. If you have Kindle Unlimited, downloading books is part of your membership. This is the first time I've published on Kindle Unlimited. Usually, I post wide. It's a novella with supernatural elements. It takes place in Philadelphia, Pa. It has enemies to lovers and age-gap tropes. I would be grateful to readers if you could download the book, read it and leave a review. There I did it…I asked someone to do something—mission accomplished.

If you want to practice your “selling” leave some info in the comment section below:

Have a great week! If anyone is interested in guest writing, please drop me a line.