How to do better selling of your writing

Reading time: Less than 1 minute

This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss a blog post about how to get better selling writing….

Most writers know that the secret ingredient to success is persistence. Try harder. Work longer. Prioritize your writing. Edit more. That’s how you make your writing better.

But did you also know that persistence is also the secret to selling? In an insightful and entertaining blog post Derek Sivers (pictured above) — an entrepreneur who was founder and former president of CD Baby, an online CD store for independent musicians — spells out the value of repeated efforts.

I like his story about the New York publicist who followed up only with artists who had contacted her three times. Like Sivers, I was amazed to learn the publicist had turned her “they-must-contact-me-three-times” approach into a principle and a deliberate system rather than just an accidental outcome.

But I agree with Sivers that the publicist wasn’t showing ego. She had figured out a worthwhile way to determine whether the artists really cared.

If you want to get better selling writing, remember that you need to make multiple efforts to contact publishers/corporations/contacts. A single ‘no’ should never deter you. Persistence usually pays big rewards.

Read the Sivers story to inspire yourself.

An earlier version of this post first appeared on my blog on Feb. 12/18.

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