There’s something every published or publishing writer can learn from salespeople. Whether you’ve signed a contract with a publishing house or you plan on publishing your books yourself, the techniques used by salespeople can benefit you.

A little background: I started a sales job six weeks ago that involves being on the phone pretty much all day (when I’m not interviewing people, which I do for 2-3 hours each day). For 50 hours a week, with no lunch break except the fifteen minutes I spend eating at my desk while reading the news, I cold-call people and companies to find jobs for computer programmers, software engineers, tech support people, and IT managers.

I can honestly say that after six weeks of doing this kind of work (and strangely enough I love every minute of it) I’ve learned a ton about being a self-published writer that I would not have learned otherwise. (more…)