Saus on self promotion

[Today's guest blogger is Steven Saus. Steven injects people with radioactive material as his day job, but only to serve the forces of good. He's also an author and small publisher. Current projects include The Crimson Pact, So You Want to Make an eBook?, and the Spec The Halls contest and charity. Thanks for joining us, Steven!]

I bet you don’t want to hear about promoting yourself. For the longest time, I sure as hell didn’t.

When I was a child, I remember my Uncle Stanley trying to give me advice about positive attitudes and promoting myself. I didn’t listen. I felt that that self-promotion was about being some soulless manipulative advertising schmuck.

But I found that simply putting my work out there wasn’t enough. It doesn’t matter if it’s on the internet or through a publisher (of any size). People won’t find you unless they know to find you. People will not spend time with you or your work unless they believe you’re worth listening to.

What I’ve found is that when I promote myself honestly and humbly, not only do I get noticed more, but my work gets noticed more.

And that’s awesome.

I’m writing a short book on self-promotion geared specifically for other authors called “Sans Spam: Self Promotion for Authors”. In it I’m going to give you the secrets I’ve already learned; think of it as “the stuff you wish you could tell yourself ten (or twenty) years ago”.

While I don’t have room to put all of the book here, I’m currently serializing the rest of the content on my blog prior to releasing the eBook. Those who donate get a free copy when I’m done.

I want to address an underlying attitude difference that I keep seeing among authors. I call it:

“The Used Car Salesperson” Versus “The Family Dealership”

Even if you’ve never bought a car, you’ve run into these two selling styles. “Used Car Salesperson” is the “hard-sell”. They are the people who constantly try to “upsell” you to a bigger model, get the “protection plan”, and generally try to convince you that you need that thing that you didn’t really want to buy. If you’ve ever bought windows or a vacuum cleaner from a door-to-door salesman, they almost certainly did a hard-sell.

Infomercials and multi-level marketers are all about the hard sell. I wrote up a detailed account of a multi-level marketer’s hard-sell scheme to get new recruits on my blog – it’s worth reading just to get an idea of how slick this stuff can be.

At best, the Used Car Salesperson convinces you for a few minutes. (Gamers in the house: Fast Talk versus Persuade.) You might drop the unit cost for that product they’re selling. They’re a “conversion”, sure, because you made a sale.

But you will never, ever make a sale to them again.

They will not buy your next book. They will not attend your next event. If they review your book at all, it’s far more likely to be negative (and remember, people are far more likely to talk about negative experiences). And if they can, they’re far more likely to return the original product they bought.

You will not only tarnish your own reputation, but the reputation of those who associate with you as well. If you get scammed by one door-to-door salesperson, you won’t trust any ever again – no matter how legit they are.

The Family Dealership operates on another principle. They are about building ongoing relationships with people – who happen to be customers – over time.

There’s still advertising – a good advertising “hook”, an elevator pitch, telling you what’s awesome about their book or other product – but it’s not about only making a sale right then.

The customer who wants the book? They’ll buy it. No problem. The person who doesn’t want your book will also remember you. But they’ll remember you as the person who asked how their day was, who wasn’t a pushy asshat like that jerk two booths down. When they run across you – or your work – again, there’s already a positive feeling associated with your name.

This customer – even if they have no interest your book itself – will still recommend the Family Dealership’s book to their friend who does like that stuff.

And the people who did buy your book?

They’ll not only buy the next one – but recommend it to their friends as well.

Mike Stackpole summed the difference between the two approaches nicely:

“The Used Car Salesperson doesn’t really believe in themselves or their product. They’re worried that if someone looks closely, they won’t buy it. The Family Dealer knows they’ve got something of value, and is secure in that knowledge.

“And it shows.”