Robert Kiyosaki, the author “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” which has
been on the New York Times best-seller list for six years, told Steve
Harrison’s National Publicity Summit that he doesn’t consider himself a best-writing author—but a best-selling author. In other words, he thinks of himself as an
entrepreneur rather than an author.
That book was rejected by publisher after publisher, so he self-published and self-promoted it and now it has sold more than 26 million copies. He started with a thousand copies and got major interviews by placing an ad in the Radio and Television Interview Report, which led to Borders offering to stock the book.
He considered the book a way to sell a game he’d developed to help people understand investing and accounting. The game sold for $200, so the profit margin was a lot bigger than the profit on the book (although 26 million copies later, the royalties can’t be too bad, either).
He said one of the main reasons most business books don’t sell is that they’re boring—they say nothing new. His advice, in short: say something new and learn how to sell.
(Steve Harrison’s site is www.yourquantumleap.com)
(For tips on how to make sure your book will sell right from the start, get my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey. It includes crucial chapters on using both traditional and new media marketing.)
