Prostituting Myself, Metaphorically Speaking

You may remember the first day of class; Azor asked all of us to introduce ourselves. How annoying is that? Talking about yourself to a dozen or so complete strangers. Needless to say I was very nervous about it. I always was, I have stagefright, but am getting over it by forcing myself to do things that put me in the spotlight. For instance, I've sang karaoke three times, granted it took me a few drinks of courage but I did it, and I enjoyed it. But I'm getting off topic. But it is also relevant. You may remember me saying the thing about myself was that I self published two books Liquid Dreams: April 2051 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/180-4638960-9558406?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Liquid+Dreams%3A+April+2051 and Jackie Reaper http://www.amazon.com/Jackie-Reaper-Donald-Jensen/dp/1607498731/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330188374&sr=8-1 . Self Publishing is actually quite easy. At first the few Print-On-Demand publishers I checked out wanted several hundred dollars up front. Which of course I didn't have, and I doubt most of us do. But then I found Publish America http://www.publishamerica.com/ , they wanted no money up front, they make their money on the back end, from your sales. What does that mean? It means they will publish your book; you buy copies and try to sell them. My first book I only sold about 40-45 copies, my second book I've only sold maybe 10 or so because I'm not allowed to sell at work anymore since it's not a not-for-profit. This is actually discouraging to an extant. I've got a third book ready to go, but haven't bothered to publish it yet. Why? Because it's hard to sell them. Like I said earlier, self publishing is easy; it's the selling that's hard. You can of course sell to friends and family, and that's about 10 books or so (my second book) but going up to strangers and asking them to spend $15 on one of your books is another matter all together. Maybe I need a few drinks of courage, I don't know. Having friends and family help you is a great way of selling, before my mom passed, she helped me sell a lot, plus the copies I sold at work (my first book). But what you may fail to realize is that people aren't buying your book, they are buying you. So if you can't sell yourself, be a salesman (or woman), you aren't going to sell that many copies. But if you do have the touch that allows you to sell ice cubes to Eskimos, as a friend once said to me, then you're on your way to a decent writing and publishing career. But as for me, I'm not very good at prostituting myself, metaphorically speaking.

If you think you may be interested in buying one of my books for $15, I keep a few in my car. Talk to me before or after class.