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Selling Mark Twain

Written by: Robin Johnston

Article Overview: This short article describes Samuel Clemmons’ “Subscription Sales” process. In addition to being an extremely gifted author, Clemmons – who most people know by his pen –name “Mark Twain” – was an acknowledged sales genius.

Selling Mark Twain

Do you remember reading in "Tom Sawyer" how young Tom talked his friends into giving up their time and their adolescent treasures to take turns doing one of his least favorite chores: white-washing his aunt and uncle’s fence? It was sales genius! For anyone who knows a little about Samuel Clemmons (the real name of well-known author Mark Twain), it's easy to see that sales is a skill that Tom Sawyer came by honestly.

Clemmons was a sales genius in his own right. In fact, while he was alive, his books were made available only by subscription. An uncommon practice today, subscription selling was once popular, and conferred many advantages to book sellers.

Subscription selling permitted publishers much greater control over their profit model for each individual book they published. As printing would not commence until orders flowed in, printing runs could be based on actual instead of estimated orders. This allowed those concerned with production costs to make profit-maximizing decisions based on real information.

As a result of the personal interaction during the sales process, subscription selling also resulted in higher sales and profits for publishers and authors. Quite often, the same texts were made available in as many as five or six different bindings. With proper representation, book agents could easily sell the better-quality bindings to more affluent buyers. Sensibly, the more elaborate bindings were offered for higher prices and, accordingly, commanded higher margins.

Another advantage of subscription sales is that it brings with it the ability to connect with an audience that does not shop through conventional channels. Clemmons recognized that the vast majority of his books were sold to a more “democratic” audience; one that did not visit bookstores as often as book retailers, publishers and authors would like. By sending agents out into the community, awareness for Clemmons’ books was much higher, and he could realize much greater distribution for each book.

The agent's tools were his prospectus and his pitch. Each book agent would be well trained in how to carry his samples, speak about, and illustrate Clemmons’ work. Deviations from the system were not encouraged. In Clemmons’ subscription sales model, book canvassing includes 5 progressive steps taken in the following natural order:

First: Thorough preparation
Second: Securing influence
Third: Gaining a hearing
Fourth: Creating a desire
Fifth: Taking the order
Samuel Clemmons built an immensely successful writing career on the subscription selling system. Can you make it work for you?

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Related Forum Posts
Re: Relevancy of books through the ages - David, Thanks for getting us the author of the quote and the MArk Twain quote
Hi all from Australia!! - Hi all, My name is Mark. I've been involved in the direct selling industry for the last 10 years since I was introduced to amway way back then, in one or another venture.. I'm here to mix and mingle with other people like myself, like minded entrepreneurs if you will and contribute a little from what knowledge I do have about marketing. I look forward to chatting with everyone out there. Regards, Mark
Help in a Struggling Economy - If anyone on the forum has a question they would like me to ask Mark Tewart on my show Monday Dec 22 - just let me know. I hope to ask him about all kinds of advice that he can share with people who want to improve their sales skills and their life and personal skills. There are many ways to improve our position in business - whether we are the boss or workers -- imagine if you learned to make yourself more valuable to your employer and/or your clients???? Mark can share great information to help you improve your skills and make yourself more valuable. Shri
Re: Sources of Cash - Yes, these can be showed in a balance sheet. Creditors can be shown in the current liabilities section as they are short term liabilities. Loans from banks, shareholders, associates and parent companies are long term liabilities items and showed in the non-current liabilities section. Keep in mind that the mark-up on these loans is a part of your current liabilities and shown as Mark-up payable to S/H and Mark-up payable banks separately.
Re: Anybody use Adify? - Thanks Mark - I appreciate the tip!


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