The picture you see above is from my first book and it earned me over seven figures in today’s money. Today I want to reveal how I made my first big break into the book writing business and the book industry as a whole with my very first book, CREDIT APPRAISAL AND PROCEDURE HANDBOOK.
That book excluding the covers and everything else, was 58 pages long. And it made me N1,782,089.92 in today’s Naira. This is my first authentic story about my book writing journey, which I’ve never told anywhere before so listen carefully.
It all started in far away Kaduna in 1992. I’d three or so months earlier graduated from The Chartered Institute of Bankers of England and Wales (as it was then called). Colloquially people referred to it as The Chartered Institute of Bankers, London.
Given my new-found status as a “chartered banker”, my bosses believed my skills would be better used at the consultancy arm of the company. The company I worked for then was a vast federal government finance institution in the agricultural development space by the name Nigerian Agricultural And Cooperative Bank (the forerunner of today’s Bank of Agriculture). I was seconded to the consultancy division.
When I arrived at the consultancy arm, called NACB Finance And Consultancy Company Limited in 1992, what I met was a company in a hyper growth mode but manned mostly by inexperienced National Youth Service Corp members (NYSC). What to do? Write a book to deepen and accelerate learning. Luckily I was appointed special assistant to the general manager and chief executive.
The GM gave me the go ahead to restructure the company and instill professionalism. That’s how the idea of writing a book without properly understanding the book writing process came to my mind.
So I set out to write what was essentially a credit guide without attending a book writing course or workshop, or understanding any book writing basics, or enlisting a book writing coach, or adhering to any book writing rules or plans, or engaging any book writing services, or soliciting any book writing advice, or adopting any book writing planner. Funny isn’t it. All I had was a passion for a guide or handbook that would in one fell swoop solve all the company’s credit headaches.
At any rate, what I lacked in professional approach to the book business, I fully made up with determination and zeal for the book project. I floated the idea to my general manager, Mr. D. O. A. Adelana, of blessed memory, and he gave his unflinching blessing. I was home and dry.
To demonstrate how naïve I was, I never even thought about the book cover design, formatting, proofreading, editing, publishing and marketing when I set out until I finished writing the manuscript. I even didn’t know the meaning and spelling of the word, “foreword”, and I wrote, “forward.” Indeed it was five years after the book came out that someone pointed out to me that the right word was “foreword.”
You see, at that point, I was the subject matter expert and what mattered to me most was the subject. Indeed within 90 days I’d hammered out the manuscript. I read and re-read it and it looked and sounded beautiful in my ears. I was an author I thought to myself but I didn’t know what to do next. Your book manuscript is ready, now what? Sounds familiar?
Long story short, my book writing journey took me to the nearest, and by that time, the most prestigious book publishing company in Kaduna by the name Baraka Press. What they had for me was bad news. Your book does not meet our standard, I was told. To publish a book with us, you must come through an agent, I was further informed.
However, after weeks of frustration, I had a lucky break. A staff of the company guided me through the murky waters of book writing and publishing. Like magic, within a few short weeks, I had 1,000 copies of Credit Appraisal And Procedure Handbook, with ISBN inscribed, neatly packed and delivered to my office. I was ecstatic but what was I supposed to do with 1,000 copies of a book?
You see, traditional book publishers have what they call minimum order quantity. In this instance, the minimum order was 1,000 copies, take it or leave it. Unlike today where existing book publishing technologies allow you to “print-on-demand” (POD), such technologies didn’t exist back then.
I was not to be deterred. Though selling the book was not in my agenda, I soon got a “marketer” who volunteered to market the book for N100 apiece while creaming off a 20% commission. It was a fair deal. That’s how I made N1,782,089.93 from my first foray into the book business without knowing anything about the book industry. I became a local celebrity.
If you have any book writing questions, or you want to learn the art of book writing, or better still, book art and writing, you can’t know from your couch. Wake up and ask from those who have written books. Maybe you want to find out “what are the best book writing platforms out there?”, or you’re asking, “will book writing make me rich?”, all you need to do is to write just one book to find out.
My advice to all would-be authors is always, bring out your book writing notes and start writing. It’s only when you do that you can find yourself an answer to the question, “how profitable is book writing?” As Goethe once said, “What you can do, or dream you can, begin it: Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”
Hope my little book writing story has inspired you enough to dust off those uncompleted manuscripts and bring them to life. Book writing has become so easy; indeed anybody can join the book writing train.
Amazon has made book publishing through its Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform a walk through the park, so you don’t need technical skills of any sort to get your book published. To publish a book, learn how to write and publish a book. As with any other skill, the best way to learn how to improve your book writing skills is to write books. It begins with your first book.
Join our free seminar on how to write, publish and launch your first book in 90 days on 13th June at 4.30pm via Zoom. To join, all you need do is to subscribe to any of the freebies on this website or follow the details here:
Here are the seminar details on Zoom:
Topic: WRITE, PUBLISH AND LAUNCH YOUR BOOK IN 90 DAYS
Time: Jun 13, 2020 04:30 PM West Central Africa
Join Zoom Meeting by clicking the link here.
Meeting ID: 759 3118 7223
Password: 6f3pG8