Turn the page on your job

Writing your own book can open doors. Photo / Chris Skelton

Have you ever noticed what a cachet the word "author" can add to someone's CV? For example "author and accountant" or "published author" suggests heavyweight qualities.

Some people write articles for publications in order to raise their profile. But publishing a book goes a whole lot further.

"A book can be a big business card," says PublishMe managing director Jane Beal.

It can be a ticket to many things including branding yourself as an expert, reinventing yourself, and also leapfrogging you into business ownership. You're suddenly seen as an authority on your subject to many in your industry.

When Carey Smith, chief executive of Ray White New Zealand, meets someone in business, he can if he chooses give a copy of his book as well as his business card. The book, DELIVER 36, with real-life stories on leadership, helped him to engage with a wider peer group.

"The book has diversified me in people's minds from a straight real estate person and made my profile broader," he says.

What's more says Smith, he has noticed when someone writes a book they are often seen as being better in their career than before - even though logically writing a book doesn't make someone sell real estate faster or do their job better.

Publishing a book may seem an unattainable goal. But in this digital age it isn't anywhere near as difficult as it was in the past.

Once considered "vanity publishing", self publishing has entered the mainstream and every year thousands of books such as Carey's are self-published in New Zealand.

Many appear on the bookshelves alongside those from leading publishing houses in bookshops such as Whitcoulls and Borders.

It's also remarkably reasonable. At a self-publishing house such as PublishMe, a print run costs $30 to set up and a 200-page A5 book costs $9.95 a copy to print. There is a reduction in price over 500 copies.

"The beauty of digital print is that you can do small print runs and not have to commit to a large quantity - you can spread the risk," says Beal. "Most of our PublishMe members opt for under 500 unless they have a guaranteed market."

Over and above that print cost, anyone who was publishing a book for professional reasons or to sell on the high street would almost certainly employ a proof-reader, a cover designer and possibly an editor and book designer. Although adding cost, this isn't difficult. Dozens of such professionals advertise on PublishMe's website or can be found on the internet.

Beal says ghost writers aren't commonly used by her writers.

Most people write their own books and then have them edited or proof-read. The editing process might be minor, or a writer might prefer to employ more of the editor's time to work on structure and style as well as spelling and grammar, to ensure the finished product is more professional.

Self-published authors such as Tom Mulholland, an Auckland accident and emergency doctor and honorary lecturer at the University of Auckland medical school, often sell their books online.

Mulholland says his two self-published books, Healthy Thinking and The Power of Healthy Thinking, bring in passive income as well as credibility and he makes money from related spin-offs including public speaking and courses offered through his business the Healthy Thinking Institute.

Self-publishing often helps people to move into public speaking as a career or sideline. That has proved the case for Steve Grounds, a wealth and small business coach, who has self-published PLASTIC SPOONS Self-Made Millionaires And How They Made It.

As a result of the "instant credibility" he received from the book, he has been successful on the speaking tour. His book, published last August, sells around the world and is about to be printed in Italian.

It's not always essential to print hard copies. Some people choose to publish digital e-books or both hard copy and digital. Grounds says he sells more copies of PLASTIC SPOONS in e-book format at $21.95 than he does in paperback, which costs $29.95.

As well as opening up the speaking circuit to Grounds, PLASTIC SPOONS is a useful marketing tool for his coaching. "I give [potential clients] copies and they can see it is a reflection of my thinking."

Jodi Cottle, sales manager at Realestate.co.nz, self-published her own book the Young & Singles Guide to Property Investment last year aged just 25 at the time.

The book started life as information for clients of her former mortgage broking business, but grew to become a book. It cost her $10,000 - which she hasn't yet recouped.

"It has not been profitable in dollar terms, [but it has been] a very worthwhile investment," says Cottle. "It certainly has raised, and continues to raise my profile." It's not necessary only to self-publish a book. Traditional publishing houses come with huge marketing machines behind them.

The advantage of self-publishing, however, is you can sell it directly, any way you want. For example, Cottle sells hers via her website and has stocks of it on offer to sell at events she attends.

Mulholland adds that books such as his published through traditional publishing houses will earn the author about $1.30 each time one sells, whereas he gets to keep the majority of the $30 per copy his books sell for on his website - less publishing costs.