When Selling My Books, Am I Actually Selling Myself?

To some degree – yes, Selling myself is part of the branding process.

I am in the process of completing the 4^th and final novel of the current story arc for my Forgotten Fodder sci-fi series.

I say current arc because I have plotted out another (4 more books) and have 1 or 2 more in my head. But the first series and first arc will be complete at month’s end.

I am striving to increase the sales of my books. Having a completed 4-novel arc, I believe, is going to help a lot with this.

But when it comes to selling any of my work – am I also selling myself?

The short answer is yes. And this is not a negative thing – it’s all about the brand.

What is my brand?

I am MJ Blehart, author of sci-fi and fantasy novels. My fantasy can be classified as young-adult sword and sorcery, as well as epic fantasy/high fantasy.

My sci-fi is both hard sci-fi and sci-fantasy. A little military sci-fi, aliens, clones, and other common tropes. But some of my stories also incorporate more fantastical elements.

Then there is Steampunk. Is it fantasy? Or is it sci-fi? I think it’s both – why not both? Mine blends these two elements.

That’s my brand. Author of fantastical tales in far-away lands – or deep space and/or the distant future.

The truth is, whatever you produce is a part of you. Ergo – you are selling yourself, too.

Because of this truth, I recently divided myself into 2 entities. Yes, I am MJ Blehart, author of sci-fi and fantasy novels. But my other brand is Murray “MJ” Blehart – author of mindfulness and conscious reality creation blogs and books.

Why the divide? To prevent confusion in the marketplace.

When I was 8 or so, my dad and his business partner split. His partner broke a couple of the agreements they made in the split and started a new, similar business. What’s more, their new logo was obviously derivative of the one my dad’s company used. So obvious that as an 8-year-old I recognize how the one would be easily confused with the other.

Initially, I thought I could be both a sci-fi/fantasy and mindfulness/life lessons author. But the confusion of being both when someone lands on my Amazon page makes it harder to sell either.

Thus – I am two brands. And I recognize how selling my work does include selling myself.

Selling myself is NOT selling out

It’s super easy to confuse the idea of selling yourself with selling out.

First, let’s define what selling out is. The concept is that you have sold your soul/compromised artistic integrity for the almighty dollar. For example – an advertising executive who knows that their product causes harm – but they make a ton of money, so they keep representing it. That, in my opinion, is an example of selling out.

Being a commercially successful artist – writer, painter, actor, whatever – is not selling out. There is ZERO reason to be a “starving artist” as a matter of integrity.

I work hard to write the novels I write. The creation, editing, re-editing, working to build good covers, and the like can be just as hard as answering phones in a call center. So why shouldn’t I make money selling my books?

Selling my work is in no way, shape, or form selling out. But societal expectations on artists creates a line – an invisible, frankly non-existent line – that can sometimes feel straddled or easily crossed.

And of course, selling some of yourself in the process of selling your art creates a feeling of judgment if your sales are not where you desire them to be.

Both brands from the author.

Not selling enough is not a judgment

When my book sales are not where I desire for them to be – it feels a bit like I am being judged.

If they don’t like my books – does that mean they don’t like me?

This can be frustrating. For example, I have over 1000 friends on Facebook (that’s factoring in friends with duplicate accounts).

Have my 1000 friends each bought at least 1 copy of any of my titles? No. Without digging down into this – book sales have never matched the number of friends I have on Facebook.

It can be very hard to see that and not feel like you’re being judged. That’s a perfectly human reaction to have, frankly.

My art is like a child to me. It’s a piece of me, my imagination, my creativity, arguably my heart and soul. Hence, when I don’t see sales of it where I feel they should be – it’s hard not to feel judged.

Selling myself is part of my author-branding process. But the actual sales of my works are not a judgment of myself or my art.

Am I awesome? In some ways, hell yes. But my writing is still improving – and will continue to do so. I believe in my art – and will keep producing and striving to sell it.

If your art – whatever form it takes – is more than a hobby – keep striving to make the most of it.

Just because it might not be selling well today doesn’t mean YOU are being judged. Which is something I need to remind myself of and take heart over.

When selling my books, am I actually selling myself? To some degree, yes – but that’s just part of the branding process. I believe in my brand – and myself.