Sell your work without selling out

These tips will have people throwing money at you... [View in browser]( You've got their attention... They're standing there looking at your art, or reading the back of your book cover, and you're nervous, but they look kind of interested, and then they ask "how much is it?" And you tell them, and watch their reaction, and if you're like me you have to resist caving in and dropping the price right away, or adding a huge bonus, or other signs of desperation. I used to be really bad at selling. I've done art shows where I didn't even think about sales. They'd ask "how much" and I wouldn't have an answer prepared. I still dislike sales and marketing, but I've gotten better at positioning my offers to display inherent value (95% of book marketing, for example, is really just packaging and positioning). Here are some things I've learned in the past decade that you might find useful. These tips are OK for selling art, or online services - but not necessarily for books (more on that below).  1. Know how much it costs. You need to know how much your work costs, and why. And you have to be confident about it. You have to say it like a clerk ringing up a candy bar. It's not your decision, that's just how much it is. You have no control over it. Say it in front of a mirror until you can say it with a straight face. 2. Set the price you want. Don't think of the price you need or would like to get. Think of the price that you want to be making for your work. Start with that. It might be ridiculous at first, but you'll grow into it. Keep saying it and visualizing it until you believe it, and make your first sale at that price. 3. Charge high. Set a price you feel comfortable with, then double it. This is especially true when you're starting out in services. If you sell at a cheap price, you'll get a lot of work or sales, but people won't value your time as much, and you'll get stressed out. You can always discount or use flash sales to earn when you need to, but set a pricey baseline - it's not just about how much you earn for your time - it's about telling the world what you're worth (also you'll likely underestimate how much unbillable time you sink into building and maintaining your business). Find other people in your industry, who are doing what you'd like to be doing, and see how much they're charging. Don't say things like "but I'm not established yet." Price as if you were where you want to be (If you're selling in art shows, you won't charge gallery prices, because galleries take as much as 50%. If you're selling books, the price needs to be competitive. But the price of something is basically as much as someone is willing to pay for it, and as much as you're willing to sell it for). EDIT: for something extremely visual like design, you can't fake it by charging too much if your skills don't justify the price point. With most fine art however, the value is in the story as much as the product. 4. There's always another customer. Don't get hung up on selling to this person. If somebody isn't willing to pay your price, it means you haven't justified it enough yet. It's a miscommunication. It's not because the art or service isn't worth the price, it's just that you haven't communicated why it's worth that much yet. Learn from your mistakes and do better next time, but don't just cave when someone lowballs you. (That said, sometimes you need some quick cash - it's OK to offer a flash sale or discount if you need to). Recently I discovered a great artist. She's selling her art for about $180 each. I tried to negotiate 10 for $1000 but she didn't budge... however I love the art and want it so much (to use on my own personal book covers) that I'll probably buy 10 at full price. I wouldn't pay that much just for decoration... but I know my books will sell a lot more if I improve the covers. The point = find the right customer with the right need, who is willing to pay more for what you have. 5. Have cheaper options available. Always have prints or some other form of your art available to supporters. Not everybody is a buyer, but that's fine - if they like your work, give them a free print or poster or something. They'll become evangelists. You might also sell 100 prints at $10 instead of 1 painting for $1000 (make sure you have a contest or something so that people take pictures of your prints, tag you on social media, and have a chance to win something bigger). For books, I give away free copies and will also have multiple series - so people can get started reading easily and for free, but will have to pay to read the entire story. I also made some mini-booklets recently to give out at a book event in London, you can read about those here: [How to make business cards, bookmarks and other kickass author swag for your writing conference]( (This stuff is fun, but generally you can reach more people for less money with online promotions). 6. Be the flame, not the moth. You're the talent. You have the goods. Don't go chasing after clients and convincing them to buy. Just make yourself amazing. Prove to everybody that you're in demand, that you're hot stuff. You can do that by showing up on podcasts or in the media. Get people talking about you by doing exceptional things. The art/product is usually not the main thing. YOU and your story are the main thing. But they can't buy you. So they have to support the things you're doing by buying from you. Make sure you're doing something epic. 7. Selling online. First, establish trust. Show a picture of you, a brief bio with your main aim/what makes you special. People call this a USP - unique selling proposition - but remember they're buying from you: you need a USP, not just your product. Get some reviews or testimonials by known figures in your field or genre. (These are gold, so go after them. Maybe you need to give them a book or a piece of art, or support and help them until you get on their radar, or do some free work for them). Then, add more testimonials or reviews, from real people/users. After that, give them a taste - an excerpt, a gallery of work. Show your amazing stuff. It's tempting online to talk about your work; but pictures have more impact; even if it's a picture or a video of your creative process. For art, sometimes most of the price is in how you talk about it. Seeing it is enough to like it, but not enough to justify high prices. For books, however, talking about it is rarely as powerful as actually sharing the writing. Authors can write really well, then choke when they have to write a description of the book. So get them reading an excerpt quickly. 8. The power of free Most people won't be ready to buy right away, the first time they see your work. Some people say it takes 12 times before your message reaches them. You want to have the option available to buy, because somebody might just buy right away. But you don't want to lose people who aren't ready to buy. So you make them a free offer. Sign up on my mailing list and I'll send you a free book/free wallpaper/free guide or resource. It's better if you can give a digital version of your work, so it doesn't cost you anything. But make the offer prominent. Get them on your list for something free - that gives you more time to build the relationship, and also rewards their interest by giving them another chance to enjoy your work. 9. Funnels Once they're on your email list, the real marketing begins. In general, the more expensive the product/service, the longer it will take to warm them up. But you're not selling. You're building trust by offering value. You can talk about all the cool people you hang out with or events you're doing. You can share snippets of your creative process. You can reveal new work. You want them to get to know you, and like you. This is really tricky, of course, but the longer they open your emails, the deeper their relationship with you. Maybe someday one of their friends is looking for a new book/piece of art/service and your name comes up. Selling with funnels is an art, by the way, and I'm only recently getting better at it. My blogs and businesses make some money, because I get traffic and because I have tons of great content - and because my "trust" value is pretty high. I've had a page on my site for the last couple years that says I charge $500 for an hour of consulting, and every month I get a few people who want to hire me for that. Instead, I usually help people out for free, because I still don't feel comfortable charging that much (and because I don't really want to work with people one-on-one). However, I've been able to charge [$1500 for book covers]( because I'm well-known and speak about book design at writing conferences and workshops. I'm shifting from services to passive income products (packages of templates, video courses, etc.) because I want to focus all of my time on my own fiction and non-fiction projects, so I'm learning a lot about building funnels that sell. Basically, you need something great, and you need some incentives to "buy now." Limited time offers, scarcity, deadlines, flash bonuses, discounts - combined together, these are powerful motivators. Don't think of it as "selling" - think of it as motivating people to take action that will benefit them, either by helping them overcome their own challenges or giving them something new and amazing they're going to love. 10. Presentation No matter what you're selling, you need to think about your packaging. Good design has a big impact on perceived value. The exact same service or product can cost double with great packaging or branding. (As an example, I started an editing company that generates income for nearly a dozen editors with very little traffic, but great branding: [The Book Butchers.]() Make sure your book cover or website is amazing. Make sure all your printed material is gorgeous. For websites, I like to keep them clean and sleek. Most authors and artists use crappy free site builders and throw on a bunch of clashing graphics and logos. If you can't design, or don't know much about building websites, consider just putting your work somewhere nice looking like Etsy or Ebay or Amazon. You should have your own website, because you need to build your list, but if your website is ugly, it won't convert well, so all the effort you take to build your platform will fail. It doesn't have to cost a lot - the trick is to keep it minimal. Creative people think in terms of "ideas" and often have lots of ideas, which leads to crowding. Designers think in terms of function - what can we remove and get rid of. What is non-essential. If you're looking for a website, check out the [99 WordPress themes]( I recommend. I hope this is useful! Building a platform that attracts new people to your work, and convinces them to buy it, is a long term endeavor. That said, if you're getting no traction, and it feels like too much work... you're probably doing something wrong. We're going to talk about that next time. How to price your books... A lot of the advice above won't work with ebooks, or any market where the product is too similar and there's ton of demand. You need to use whatever price helps you reach your audience. If you have no platform and a mediocre cover and blurb and no reviews, no amount of wishful thinking or confidence will keep your book selling at $6.99. $3.99 is generally the right price for most books longer than 40K words, but you should try some permafree book and price promotions/99cent deals, to keep your visibility high. If nobody is seeing your book, the price doesn't matter, and it's better to get more sales and visibility and a lower price point than less sales at a higher price point (only because, every sale on Amazon gives you a boost in rank and extra visibility). I made a video recently, specifically talking about pricing strategies for series and how long your books should be, click below to watch it. If you need more help with selling books specifically, you can join the [Guerrilla Publishing Facebook group]( and download some free guides to book marketing (look for them in the pinned post). Thanks again! Derek Murphy, Creativindie [facebook]( [instagram]( [twitter]( [youtube]( [Share to Facebook]( [Share to Twitter]( [Forward email]( Do not want to see it again? [Unsubscribe]( Derek Murphy [Creativindie.com]( | Portland, OR Location Independent - Usually in a castle or cabin.