Featured in the September/October 2011 of “Selling Power” Magazine, our very own John Locke shares how he made his fortune the old-fashioned way — selling.

“…Fill In a Niche

Today Locke defines success as “having the freedom to do the things that I want to do – like this writing adventure – and to watch this family I now have grow. Being as driven as I was before, I never had the time to draw back and understand what success really was. Success wasn’t owning the most or selling the most or making the most money. Success was enjoying those things with people you care about.”

If something John Locke wanted or tried didn’t work out, his first response was always, “I haven’t done everything I can.” He would come back to the problem time and time again until – like Thomas Edison – the light would come on. And then he would take action to multiply what worked, rather than get stuck in what didn’t.

“With my novels,” says Locke, who penned nine novels over the past two years, “I was selling nothing in the beginning.” He followed what everyone said you had to do, but it was just like his experience with insurance: when the tried and true fails to work, find out what works for you and go for it.

“I found a niche market I could understand and replicate,” he says. Early doubters should have been warned. Locke was determined to sell 1 million books, and within two years he accomplished that goal. While his novels may not be right for everyone, those who’ve become fans are devoted. Eventually New York agents and even the Wall Street Journal came calling, and Locke opened his accounting books to a reporter to verify the sales figures that finally even the New York Times best-seller list couldn’t ignore.

Read the entire article at SellingPower.com