Sales or Marketing?

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I talk to writers every day who are thinking about publishing their own books. Some have friends who have self-published, so they know it can be done. Or they’ve read the blogs of writers who are doing well in the Kindle store. Or they are just tired of waiting for the agent, the editor, the publisher to get back to them.
Whatever the reason, there’s one objection I hear more than any other from these writers:
“I just want to write, I’m not a salesman.”
And that’s too bad. I think this attitude represents a real misunderstanding on the part of authors. Here’s why.

It’s About Marketing, Not Sales

Think about the difference between marketing and sales.
Book marketing means promoting your book to people who are likely to be interested in it. The main activity of marketing is communicating to these likely purchasers.
Sales, on the other hand, is completely different. It’s the process of making transactions, the exchange of money for books, in this example.
You can’t sell a book to someone who’s not interested in it or who doesn’t want to buy it.
Marketing your book, on the other hand, is something similar to what you are probably doing already when you talk about your book to friends, family, or other writers.