mercial business and there has to be a
market for the book," Martyn explains.
Something that may be beautifully writ-
ten but is unlikely to sell more than 1000
copies doesn't represent a good enough
return on the publisher's investment. "I
read at home. Most of my day is spent
looking at profi t and loss, margins and
spreadsheets."
print on demand (POD) have made the
prospect of self-publishing far more fea-
sible than ever before. One author who
has self-published is young entrepreneur
and motivational speaker Dale Beaumont.
Beaumont is the author of the "Secrets
Exposed" series, a collection of interviews
with hundreds of successful Australians.
To-date a total of fi fteen Secrets Exposed
books have been successfully released
into bookstores and more than 200,000
`Secrets Exposed' books are now in print,
for sale across Australia and throughout
South East Asia, as well as online.
withdraw their efforts to
promote it and cut their
losses."
it work," Beaumont explains. He wrote the
books, hired an editor and proof-reader,
worked with the design team on the cover
and look of the book, and then oversaw
the print schedule himself. He hired a dis-
tribution company to get the books into
the bookstores and promoted them as-
siduously through his websites, presenta-
tions, You Tube, Twitter and his business
database, consciously creating an online
community that knew his work.
help topics with a clearly defi ned target
audience tend to be the most success-
ful self-published genres. Even so, sales
beyond 100 copies per title are unusual
unless you are Robert Kyosaki (author
(Chicken Soup for the Soul).
stream publishing in this current market."
Mainstream publishers will often pick
up successful self-published titles, for
example The Pocket Basics for English
and Maths, by Lyn Magree, a mother of
a primary school student. "[Magree] was
rejected by publishers but went ahead,
printed 5000 copies of her book and
talked her way into Dymocks. It sold out
in six weeks and we picked it up. But if
she had come to us with a book about
grammar and maths, we probably would
have rejected her. So one of the advantag-
es [of self-publishing] for us is the chance
to try ideas out on the market."
Roland Fishman at The
Writers Studio in Sydney
runs a good one, but
there are others. If you
want feedback, don't
give it to a close friend
because they probably
won't be honest. Give it
instead to a friend of a
friend, someone who
doesn't know you but
who loves reading and
reads widely.
Selwa Anthony