I have a sister who has done direct sales for most of her married
life. She liked it because she could work from home while making friends
and a little spending money. She tried various direct sales companies,
always with some success but never found "the one" until about five
years ago when a sales buddy told her about a new start-up called
Scentsy.
My sister, who had recently left Pampered Chef,
signed right up. With her sales experience and wide range of contacts,
she quickly rose to the top of things and is now making more money than
she ever dreamed possible.
This is called "getting in
on the ground floor." It's also called "the early bird gets the worm,"
and it's these rare opportunities that people fantasize about. Although
I'm not interested in direct sales or jealous of my sister's success in
her chosen career path, I must admit that I'm jealous of those people
who got right in on the ground floor of Kindle sales.
The
Kindle store daily gets more crowded, making it difficult to have the
same success those early birds had. Putting a title on sale now for .99
won't guarantee anything, because the market is glutted. But that used
to be the best way to grab attention for your book. Then there's regular
Amazon, where countless millions of print books are listed. You can
sell a book a day and still find yourself stuck in the six digit ranking.
If you take a wander through Celerytree.com,
you'll see just a handful of authors and books. Choosing a book to buy
will be like a pleasant, relaxed saunter through the village bookstore.
And you might even run into someone you know *wink* on the Author
Profile Pages and the Forum.
Celery Tree is like a
brand new direct sales company for authors, only without the phone calls
and setting up parties in peoples' homes (a reclusive writers worst
nightmare of a job). It's online, where many of us are the most
comfortable.
One writer wrote in her email, "I am
thrilled by this 'co-op' idea! Farmers have been doing this for years,
and it makes sense to finally have it in the writing arena."
So call us a
direct sales company, a co-op for published authors, a start-up
internet website, an online bookstore....or call us Celery Tree, because
we are humble and easily overlooked like celery, but we will grow
mighty like a tree.
Right now we're small but
dedicated, unknown but determined; I do not expect we'll stay small for
long. Not judging by the response from this blog tour. If I had any
doubts before, your blog posts, comments and
overall responses of the past three weeks have shown me otherwise. Clearly this is an idea whose
time has come. Writers want a central location that's not only for networking and links but which also encourages and facilitates the buying of books
Leave the Jungle. Join our Village!
For more wrap up of the Big Blog Tour, see the Celery Tree blog.
Hope your journey from ground floor to penthouse is a quick and great one!
ReplyDeleteVery cool thing you are doing here. Exciting as well.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right -- being the first to the table with a great idea makes all the difference. Lots of luck with Celery Tree!
ReplyDeleteI do like the farmer's market analogy!! Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteHoorah for your sister!! Hoorah for you!! What a most talented and amazing family!
Take care
x
You'll have an office with windows soon.
ReplyDeleteHope you're so successful that your sister wonders how YOU did it!
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to see the support.
ReplyDeleteAnn Best, Author of In the Mirror & Other Memoirs
You created your own ground floor and that is inspirational. I love your analogy to celery. I truly believe you will grow to be mighty! Have a great weekend, Karen!
ReplyDeleteAmazon or even a typical bookstore can be overwhelming. If you don't have a stack of books on a display at the front entrance or a promo page from Amazon, your little ol' book can get pretty lost. You're doing a good job of bringing the more personal touch to book selling.
ReplyDeleteLee
Wrote By Rote
Best wishes to Celery Tree! Like Arlee, I think you'll go a long way as a result of the personal touch!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy browsng celery tree and I wll go back to it to get books! Congratulations on this interesting endeavor.
ReplyDeleteHi Karen .. Celery Tree is great - I know I'll get a range of books - and that is growing .. and I support authors getting on the road ..
ReplyDeleteWonderful idea .. and I'm around .. cheers Hilary
This is a terrific entry, and your blog is wonderful. I'm now following.
ReplyDeleteIf you've the chance, take a look at my blog. I'm the award winning author of the Bella and Britt series for kids.
Thanks for sharing.