As a writer, and author of books, do you ever feel – as I have done – that when it comes to promoting your product, you simply don’t have it in you? The prospect of booking speaking engagements is beyond you. The possibility of standing before an audience and persuading them to purchase your book is something you’d never contemplated. Of course, it’s frightening because the solitary pursuit of creativity is so very different from the public persona required in speaking and selling.

Or is it? Do we have to be pushy? Do we need to nail people down for them to purchase our product? Or can we simply appeal to their need?

I was listening recently to a podcast about public speaking to sell a product and make more money. Having been a published author since 1983, when my publishers set up speaking engagements for me all over the country, as well as on radio and TV, I know that making money is not the object of the game for me. What I want, via my speaking and the books I write, is to share my story, be it fact or fiction; to broaden the minds of my readers and thus help them to solve the problems that face them; to give them hope and a different outlook on life.  But how best to do so?