Not sure Drama Becomes Me or the other way around (loosely borrowed from the movie title Death Becomes Her)!

There is no surprise that the international postage is outrageously expensive, but this is another level.

Last Friday, I was going to send my books to my good friend Pam in New York (my first U.S. customer) via the Royal Mail.

My book weighs 124g and for printed matters under 250g it is a flat rate of 4.75 pounds.

And now “wearing a new hat” as a savvy small business owner (my small book is my business), I put 2 books in the parcel which accounted for 248g.

Then I added 6 promotional postcards to the parcel.

I went to the post office holding my head high thinking how smart I was with this shipping cost minimization.  I put one parcel on the scale and it was 251g.  The counter staff said 7.45 pounds and for some reason, (you see , I may have hearing problem :>), I thought she said 4.75 pounds which was what I had expected. She put the stamps on three parcels.  When it was time to pay, she said a total of 22.35 pounds.  I questioned why and she said 7.45 pounds each and you saw it was 251g each.  Between 251g and 500g, the postage is 7.45 pounds.  Essentially, I was asked to pay 2.7 pounds for 1g!  I recomposed myself and told her politely to REMOVE the stamps from the parcels.  I have changed my mind.  Needlessly to say, I could see steam come up of her head and she furiously (yet carefully) peeled off the stamps (one by one).  I went home and repacked the parcels.  I went back to the same post office this morning and tactfully avoided her (when I saw that it was my turn to her counter, I “suddenly” recalled that I needed to check some packing materials and re-joined the queue 2 seconds later).

Learned from last Friday’s experience,  I left the parcel open (with 2 books inside) and put my promotional postcards into it, ONE at a time.  I actually did not see the people behind me rolling their eyes because I don’t have eyes on my back :>.

Guess what the optimal number is?

The answer is 2 books with 4 postcards in the parcel (with some of “bubbles” of the bubble wrap BURST for weight reduction!)

Yes, I know.  Welcome to the new world of “poor” entrepreneurs – every pence counts, my friend :>  I am not ashamed!

All are welcome. I meant FEEDBACK for my book (borrowed loosely the movie title from Clint Eastwood)

My editor Geoff warned me repeatedly to refrain from defending myself in particular to non-positive feedback. He said, rightly so, that even the bestsellers received negative feedback from time to time. So take a deep breath; use a paper bag if needed and as a last resort he asked me to call him before putting my response in writing. Yes, I will bite my tongue and put a lid on my not-so-small mouth (for a change). I promised I will collect and consider all feedback without starting a fight.

High fixed costs can be a “killer” if you don’t have them under control.  It sounds obvious, but this point hit home from my first-hand experience.  I would emphasize the marketing cost since we self-publishers need to do promotion ourselves.

For example, printing a postcard of decent quality costs 10 pence. To distribute it to an apartment building with 100 units, you have to shell out 10 pounds without knowing the impact on book sale. For argument sake, if the profit of each book is 1 pound (hypothetically), to break even, 10 postcards need to generate the sale of one book!  Based on this simple calculation, a more focused marketing target would make more sense unless you can reduce the printing cost, provide a wider product range and/or increase the profit margin.

In short, eyes on fixed costs before “they eat you alive”.

At a social event last night, I managed to sell 2 copies of my book (Please don’t start avoiding me. I am still sensible and will back off if my potential book buyer is not interested).

I told someone that my books are sold out for the night. Technically correct – I only carried 2 copies with me. I heard the person responded “Yes, BUY five” with one hand/five fingers up. I said, “sorry, sold out tonight. Will arrange 5 copies tomorrow!” He said “No, I said HIGH five” As some people said, one tends to hear what they want to hear. Perhaps next time, it will be really 5 copies of my book!

My sister told me last night that she wanted to learn Korean.
She said she was motivated to understand the Korean TV soap opera which apparently had taken the world by storm. (My French friends in Paris told me that the Korean TV soap opera is popular there as well.) The conversation with my sister took place on the day she received my book BEFORE reading it. What a halo effect. I am claiming credit anyway. Not too much of a stretch right?

Today I asked the owner of the Dose café James if I can put my book for sale at his café.  He kindly said yes and there we are – You can now purchase my book there. Many thanks James.

Hopefully it is only the first of many places that would sell my book :>

May I just set the record straight?
There is no reviewer copy if you are not a journalist or a book critic. If you are a friend and would like to support me (will be greatly appreciated), please purchase a copy from me.
Please note that printing a book is not free and as a self-publishing author, your friend Raymond (me) is actually paying from my very pocket. So, if I ask you subtly “Would you like a sale receipt?”, you know what I mean. Please don’t make me ugly and send you the bill later :>

It is because Prince Harry officially turned 30 last night. I was not invited to his party so I only heard it from the news this morning (not that I would have time anyway :>).

I should have discussed it before, but now is a good time to mention it.

The target audience of my book is people of 30 years old and beyond. That accounts for over 60% of the total population in the G10 countries. However, I think the book’s basic framework in approaching learning from 3 angles, namely psychological, practical and problem-preempting, is still applicable to learners of ALL ages :>

It is to strongly “persuade” your friend to BUY your book!

It was a close call for me last week. I got 200 copies of my book delivered to me last Tuesday. Out of over-excitement, I contacted a good friend of mine who had promised to buy a copy from me (she will remain anonymous till I have obtained a clearance from her). She told me that she was actually preparing for her trip to New York this weekend and had no time to purchase my book. In reply, I suggested that she could buy a few more copies of my book and use them as gifts for her American friends. I added that my book is actually quite light so it would not a problem fitting it into her luggage. It would make a good read on the plane! I even offered hand-delivery by my very self over lunch time or after work whenever she got a few free minutes.

I did not think it was that much of a hard-sell, right? But I did not hear from her for 2 days. I was wondering why!!! Fortunately, she came around (not physically) and agreed to let me drop off 3 copies for her :> However, with my sense of direction (or rather the lack of it), I was late for 20 minutes. She was furious – not sure of my “excellent” salesmanship or my tardiness. Will find out if she still talks to me after her New York trip!

Yes, my colleague Andrew told me yesterday that he had read my entire book! He gave some feedback verbally which I would not mention it here.

No, not that was bad! That is not what I meant, people (stop giggling now). Listen, it is because he promised me to write a PROPER review. You see – my interpretation of what he said might be difference since I had my subconscious filter on and might “tilt” his feedback to my favor. That would not be fair, right?

Sorry for throwing out a teaser. I will report later. In addition, he gave me good advice that I should sell my book to libraries. I will check that out as well. Thanks Andrew.