Represent-Feature Story

Making Paper
I sell my stories on the street

By Miguel Ayala

For a few years now, I’ve not only worked as a writer for Represent but I’ve been selling Represent on the street to make some extra income. If the weather is nice and I have a stack of magazines lying around, I jump in my “car” (OK, the train, I admit it) and head off to Greenwich Village, Times Square, Columbus Circle and other places in New York City where lots of people congregate.

I buy copies from Represent at cost (25¢ an issue) and sell them for $3. Sometimes I make more money than I expected. My first time pushing Represent I went to Times Square saying I wanted to make at least $20 by 11 p.m. I got there a little after 8 and by 10 I already had $40. But my luck didn’t hold. In the next hour, I only made about $5 more.

Even so, it felt good. I knew when I left that I would miss my curfew by an hour, but I didn’t care. I was confident that I did not have to rely on my group home for money anymore. I knew I had an income from the streets, as long as I hustled.

Refining My Pitch

When I started “promoting,” I had no sales pitch. I went Dolo (improv) and said whatever popped into my head. I never, never practiced. When I wanted to make money I got on the iron horse, went to the city, did my thing, counted on luck and then split.

But as time passed I began to work on refining my pitch. Now I tailor each pitch to the issue. It’s easiest to sell when I have one of my own stories in the magazine, and I keep my pitch short and straight to the point. I can get anywhere from $3 to even $15 in just a few minutes. Easier than begging a friend for a loan.

These days when I go to my normal spots, I know a lot of people, and that can be a very good thing. In Times Square there’s a Starbucks where I go to regroup so that I don’t burn out standing and saying the same pitch over and over for hours. Now people at that café sometimes give me coffee for free. Other times I’ve bummed cigarettes and had people on the street buy me sodas.

But I don’t always leave the city with a phat pocket. Sometimes I actually lose money, because remember: when I’m out there, I need to eat and pay for my subway rides. If sales are slow, I might not even break even.

And I have one very big problem: the weather. If it rains or snows for a few days (especially on weekends), I lose a ton of money. When it rains even a light drizzle, my copies of Represent get damaged real quick. Eventually I have to chuck those copies, which I’ve already paid for.

Good Times

My sales record was early in my career, and it was one of the best times I ever had.

It started like a normal day. I made my goal in the first hour—$20. Then I noticed I was having a lot of customers and taking in much more than usual. People were constantly giving fives—throwing in a $2 donation—or thick wads of singles.

Four hours later I counted and I realized I had more than $50. I was ecstatic. By the end of the day, I had $66 in bills and a bunch of gold dollars and quarters. Altogether, I’d made $120 after expenses. I bought myself two CDs to celebrate. The record still stands. I was a very happy Miguel that day.

But the biggest “perk” of promoting is the friendships I make. When I’m hustling, all I have to do is run my pitch, and suddenly I’m having a conversation with someone. Over time, I’ve gotten to know a lot of different kinds of people just by sharing my stories. Now that’s a job I love—making serious money and meeting people at the same time.