Recently I received a call from
a gentleman who had a manuscript that he wanted to have edited.
We made an appointment to meet so I could look at what he
had done and give him an estimate of my charges.
When I arrived at his home,
he quite excitedly showed me his work. I could tell he was
very proud of what he had done. At the same time, he was very
open to any changes or improvements that would help the average
reader understand his subject, which was metaphysical in nature.
As I scanned the contents, it
was apparent this gentleman had a passion for his subject
matter. Although there were some rough spots, overall I was
impressed.
I quoted a price, we spent a
few minutes discussing timeframe and other matters, and I
left.
In a couple of days, I presented
the edited product to my client. He seemed pleased with my
work and I thought that was the end of it.
I was mistaken.
In the interim, he had decided
to put his manuscript into booklet format and wanted to know
if I could help him. I assured him I could and we agreed on
the additional charges and timeframe.
Before I had completed the formatting,
I received a call from this gentlemen asking if I could take
care of having the booklet printed. I assured him I could
take care of that as well.
Over the next couple of weeks,
the booklet was created and returned to the client. He was
obviously quited pleased. We settled the bill and I thought
the project was done.
Again, I was wrong.
After about a week, I received
another call. He wanted to sell his booklet over the Internet
and could I help? I told him I would do some research for
him.
Another week passed. Another
phone call. He had sent a copy of his booklet to the New York
headquarters of Barnes and Noble to see if they would be interested
in it and had received their response. He excitedly asked
if he could send me a copy because it looked like they might
be interested.
When I received the letter,
which included Barnes & Noble Acceptance Criteria, I sadly
noted that his booklet would not qualify. It was apparent
that my client had not read the letter carefully enough.
But then, what could I expect?
Sometimes people in their late 80's have a hard time
seeing.
The moral of this story? An
80+ year old man had a dream and acted on it. Although
he may never see his booklet on the shelves of Barnes and
Noble, I doubt very much that this will discourage him. He
has set a goal to put his creation out for the world to see.
And one way or another, it's going to happen.
What does this story have to
do with marketing? Nothing. And everything. Think about it.
Nan Yielding has nearly 10 years experience as an online business owner. She is the owner of Writing-Etc.com and offers internet marketing services and assistance to help website owners attract more customers and increase sales.
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