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.

Some people asked me what my expectation on the sales of my book is. My next milestone is 1,000 paid copies in the first year. Then I would consider the book as a success (in my opinion as an unknown author). That is the sign that I have sold my book beyond my circle of friends and family which is the core and my base.

My goal is to be able to excel and reach out to a wider audience propelled by the encouragement, support and help from friends and family.

Folks, we can do it, right? Alright then – let us show the world what we can achieve!

I could not contain my excitement. I received the first batch of my books this afternoon. YES!!! Lulu.com sent them ahead of the schedule (Thanks guys!). The book looks great [of course – I am not biased at all 🙂 ] even better than the pdf that I reviewed before printing.

I have already sold 11 copies to my colleagues. I was so “thick-skinned” beyond my own imagination. Apologies to those who suffered from a bit of hard-sell from Raymond.

The book is now available via Lulu.com (please see link below for ordering before my official launch).

It will be available (both paperback and e-book) at Amazon soon.