I think I have a new hero. His name is Christopher Herz, from Canal Publishing.
This guy takes indie/guerrilla marketing to absolute new heights. What he does is called "handselling," and that in-and-of itself is nothing new. As the name implies, it's basically making sales out-of-hand to people you happen to meet. It's similar to musicians selling their records out of their car trunk after a gig, right?
But this guy is committed to it. So much so that he recently got a nice little write-up in Publisher's Weekly, of all places.
According to the article, "Christopher Herz quit his advertising job to walk the streets of Manhattan literally selling copies of his first novel, The Last Block in Harlem ... Every day he takes 10 copies out to the streets and does not come home until he sells all of them. He has accomplished his goal in as little as an hour and as much as 10 hours."
See what I mean? 10 copies. Every day. That's commitment. That's awesome.
It goes to show you, there are so many ways to market your book. If you are willing to be a little creative, put in the sweat equity and make opportunities for yourself there is no telling what you can accomplish. That is what being indie is all about.
If you feel inspired by Christopher's story, I have great news for you. He will be speaking at the Baltimore Book Festival this weekend:
Black Money: Why the Urban Genre is Remaking the Book Business
Friday, September 25, 2009, 3:30 pm
In the Literary Salon
And even better, Christopher will be hanging out with us at the AuthorsBookshop.com booth on Friday from about 5:oo pm on - so stop by to meet him and ask him all the questions I know you have about hand selling!
You can get his book the old-fashioned way (over the internet) at Canal's webiste, but for Pete's sake - if the guy comes up to you on the streets of Manhattan, buy his book; he needs to get home for dinner!
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