Don’t raise your eyebrows; you read it right. I know. The common notion about writers is that they are a clueless bunch of people who are perpetually in a state of loss and grief with no worldly sense whatsoever. Yet if you take a moment you will realize, it is in the qualities of being a writer that there lies a hidden potential to become an amazing salesperson for his or her book. So, here are five reasons why you as an author can also become a pro at selling your book.
1. They Spin Magic With Words
Writers are magicians whose magic wands are their pens. Every good writer has that magic ability to play with words and make words dance to their tune, as and when they want. They can twist and turn words and enslave them to their own service. Do you know what the most important quality of being a salesperson is? Being a good talker. Selling something depends a lot on how you approach and talk to your potential customers. Words play a very important role there. The right words can make or break a deal. So being a writer you always have an upper hand here.
2. Empathy
The ability to think like others is what I mean, not feel like them. As a writer, every day you think like your characters when you write. You are naturally, henceforth, good at putting yourself in other’s shoes and thinking like them. This is one thing that is also a quality of a good salesperson. When you are selling something, you need to think like your potential customers. The writer’s ability to empathize goes a long way here.
3. Pushing Through Failure
Remember those times when you sit at your desk, but the words refuse to be generous with you that day? Remember tearing through countless papers and deleting countless files as you realise that they are not good enough? And then staying up all night and finally nailing that one chapter? That perseverance, that ability to push through repeated frustration and failure is what makes every writer a potentially great salesperson, above all other things. No one has seen failure in the eye like the one who writes; and the one who sells.
4. Focus
This one goes hand in hand with the above two qualities. A writer needs to be empathetic to their characters as well as push through failures. But while doing all this, he cannot lose sight of his ultimate goal. His focus needs to be fixed on the ending of the book, and the termination of the plot. Similarly, a salesperson cannot lose focus of his ultimate goal through failures and empathy. And for him, the ultimate goal is to make a sale. For both writers and salespeople, focus is thus crucial for success.
5. Patience
Writers are the epitome of patience. So are salespeople. A writer needs to have patience and let the plot unfold on its own as he writes. That is the difficult part of writing. You know your destination (mostly); what you need to survive through is the journey until you reach your goal, which is the end of the book. Similarly for a salesperson, the ultimate goal is to make a sale. But the whole journey before that is not an easy one. And thus for writers as well as salespeople, it takes a tremendous amount of patience to complete the journey till the end.