One of my author clients has been writing a book since 2022 and it’s due out next year, to coincide with a major anniversary of the story being told over its pages. That’s a lot of time and a lot of writing and editing.
Clearly this is an example of someone putting their proverbial blood, sweat, and tears into something. It’s one of those projects that all their friends and family know about and hear about. It means so much to them that they probably have nights of staying up late and mornings of waking up early, all because of being consumed with thoughts of how to make it better.
Imagine, then, when a project like this gets released. The fruits of their labor are realized and all that’s left is to focus on sales and marketing. All that time and effort is about to pay off, literally, as – in the case of my aforementioned client – readers plunk down their, say, 19.99 for a copy of the book.
What message does it send, then, when someone asks for a copy for free? How is the author supposed to feel when someone says, “Want to give me a buy-one-get-one-free deal because (insert weak justification here)?” Put yourself in the author’s shoes and think how you would feel as someone stands in front of you and more or less implies, “Eh, it’s not worth twenty bucks to me. But I’m interested enough if you’ll give it to me for free (or for ten dollars)!”
Over my two decades working with indie music artists, I have bemoaned the people who want to book a performer for their event because “it’ll be good exposure for them,” which is always said in conjunction with, “We can’t pay, but.” That’s when I say, “When a home handyman or an electrician or a plumber comes to do some job in your home, do you tell him, ‘I can’t pay you at all, but I’m going to share all about you on Facebook’?”
To try to negotiate someone’s price down is telling them you don’t value what they do – or, at least, not enough to pay their going rate. For some reason, the same price that others are paying that professional shouldn’t apply to you.
Musicians will talk to various industry professionals (radio promoters, booking agents, managers, publicists, etc.) and say, “Just so you know, I don’t have any money,” as though the response should be a quick, “Oh, that’s totally fine.” How would that performer feel if that same industry person brought them an opportunity and said, “Just so you know, you’re not going to make any money off of this”?
If you’re a performer and someone you know has a really important show coming up and is pulling out all the stops to really fill the place up, you going to see their show but telling the person at the door, “Oh, no, I’m a fellow musician. I know (headliner’s name),” isn’t the help they’re looking for. What if everyone who showed up there used that line? They’d have a full room but nothing financial to show for it.
It all really boils down to The Golden Rule of do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.
Remember this the next time you want to ask someone to have a fee waived (and I don’t mean major international corporations) or you want to smile and try to fun talk your way past a door person to get into something without paying. You might as well tell the person you’re seeing that, “Hey, I don’t value your time and what you do, but I’m looking forward to this nonetheless.”
If you see this problem happening to you, let’s have a ten-minute phone call. Or, if there are other challenges you’re facing, we can talk about that or those instead. For twenty years now I’ve been helping indie music artists, authors, entrepreneurs, actors and filmmakers, small business owners, and podcasters from around the U.S. Draw upon all that experience of mine – including my ten years of hosting the weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast – to benefit what you’re doing, career-wise. I’ll look forward to chatting with you!