A few years ago, my wife started baking as a hobby.
(you've not tasted bread until you've tasted homemade bread fresh from the oven, still reassuringly warm.)
she started with bread and then took on a personal challenge to bake a chocolate cake.
she'd thought it would be hard to do; but people loved it.
"Why not sell your cakes?" I asked her.
"that way, your hobby pays for itself and you'll have capital to try different things."
she had her misgivings, initially. the kind most of us have.
would anybody want to pay for her cakes?
they did. premium prices, they paid.
for her made-from-scratch, butter-not-margarine, cake-not-air signature pieces of edible art.
long story made short, she's now made fondant cakes, flourless cakes, brownies, cartoon character cakes, doll cakes, wedding cakes with live flowers, muffins, art cakes with piped curlicues, et cetera, et cetera...
and her collection of cookbooks now takes up 25% of our library, filling one floor-to-ceiling bookshelf by itself.
(feeding her other habit--reading.)
she got to try things she'd never dreamed of before, develop her hobby and internalise skills that will last for life – all because she took one bold step to sell her cakes, instead of baking for nothing.
what's wrong with baking for nothing?
nothing's wrong with baking for nothing, except that eventually she'd have run out of people to try her ideas on, and then she would have stopped growing as a baker.
by selling her hobby cakes, she expanded into new fields of baking as the "market" demand for new ideas grew.
I know you're already writing.
you write for fun; you write to satisfy your soul.
you don't think you're the best writer in the world, but you know that you can do better than much of the stuff you've come across out there.
wouldn't it be great to provide avenues for your writing to grow?
writing for sale expands your breadth and the depth of your reach.
and don't let anyone tell you that selling is "selling out" or a dirty job.
readers don't buy if what they're paying for doesn't give them value.
when readers pay you, it simply means one thing. you've benefited them.
and in exchange for that blessing, they're returning some of that value to you in the form of money and what money can buy.
(plus, some of what money can't buy--gratitude expressed via email, word of mouth via blog post, etc.)
do you want to expand your breadth, reach further with your passion and change the lives of your readers?
then keep developing your writing and try selling.
join the Passionista Writing Posse and I'll show you how!
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