The final part of this particular business model takes us into a world that is similar - but different - to the one I described in Part #3. Where that is about targeted promotion this is more your general get yourself out there, promotion.
These various parts of the business model follow a sequence, and after you've had your commission (or someone bought your spec); you've done contracts and sorted the money; written it; done quality control and it's been accepted (and hopefully made). Then you have something that says "I'm a professional writer". And you can promote that broadly. Which then leads into the next cycle - hopefully bigger and better.
Of course there is a cycle before that: I mentioned spec scripts. Obviously nobody starts with a commission (well not usually) but you write a spec script you get it honed to perfection, you enter it in competitions. Then, if you get anywhere, you can promote that: "I am a competition-winning writer."
Is there a cycle before that? Sure there is: You sit down and actually write something. You may only be promoting to yourself but then you're "someone who wrote something and finished it." (Professional writers finish things, amateurs don't.)
So, what do you use for your promotion? Websites, networking, blogging, getting testimonials [for example I can say "Cery Meyrick liked Monsters"], sending out letters to possible clients [more on that soon in the next OMG blog, right after this one]. Absolutely anything. And you hang your awards up on the walls. You are not a shrinking violet, you tell it like it is. And ultimately you achieve recognition. In the early cycles maybe not a lot of people know who you are, but you keep at it, keep promoting and eventually everyone who needs to know, will know.
This is a very exciting and pro-active business model. It works for anything but this is my personal view of how it works for a writer.
Am I qualified to talk about business? Well, I have run various organisations using this model. And I do give business advice on a personal one-to-one level and the people I advise have been grateful. So I guess I probably am. (See what I did there - that's doing this part of the business model, general promotion, testimonials, clever eh?)
Hope that was useful.
What's on the turntable? "Summertime" by George Gershwin, as sung by The Walker Brothers from the "Gala" compilation. This is a surprisingly good rendition of an amazing song.
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