Cold Calls

One reason I would never be a good salesman is I hate cold-calling.  (I understand politicians do this a lot, too, to raise money.)  But it's all part of the freelancing life.  Since I'm going to be on vacation the first part of August and I do most of my story writing in the first weeks of the month, the magazine publisher I do a lot of work for has given me both stories for July and August to do this month.  That has required me to cold call eight people.  I have so far, called six (and one won't return my calls).  I much prefer email.

I really like freelance writing. I get to talk to (usually) interesting people, I learn things, and I then get to write about them.  I love that.  But having to call a stranger and ask for their time and help is just annoying to me.

There's a philosophy of business that some people make a lot of money selling to entrepreneurs, that you should concentrate on what you love to do because that's where you'll be the most productive and the happiest.  Then hire someone to do the stuff you don't like to do such as paperwork, accounting, etc.  And try to find someone who loves doing that stuff so they're happy and productive (yes, there are people who love accounting).  But I really can't afford to hire an assistant to set up interviews for me.

There are parts I hate about writing fiction, too.  I don't like trying to market my work to publishers/agent.  I hate trying to sell my books to people.  But again, I pretty much have to do those things.  I guess if I become a best-selling author and make oodles of money, I can hire someone to do that, but in that case, I wouldn't need to do either and I'd probably stop freelancing, too.

So you people need to by more of my books!