Thinking of writing a book

mja said:
If you can including something about the psychology of commercial property, I think you'll do well. Most of the people I know who have even a couple of investment properties won't go near commercial, as it's either too "hard", or too much of a "black box", or "only rich people invest in commercial property".
Click to expand...

i agree. i find the thought of buying commercial daunting as one has to get involved in all sorts of scary things like gst, different advertising/market, location (buy a res ip anywhere and it generally will rent - comm is different).


but if someone would allay the fears in a fun, easy to read book that would be great - then i could read it over and over until it all sunk in.
 
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Righto,

When I find some spare time, it'll come together.

However, everything has been put on hold.....as for the first time in over 12 months we have found a property on the market here in Perth that finally fits our criteria.

Investor first and foremost....budding beginner author a distant second.

It's really ugly and big and smelly and hopefully puts everyone else off from buying it. The big fish in the industrial pond are circling, but we are determined to muscle our way into this opportunity.

So it's all hands to the wheel, chasing down research and doing the due diligence on something that should set us up for the remainder of our days.

This place will be worth triple what it is now in 5 or 6 years time. :)

Ah, the thrill of the hunt, I love it. There goes the low LVR if we get it.

Wish us luck, we won't be pipped at the post by some Eastern States institution or mutual fund this time around. :mad:
 
hi dazzling
as I told redwing maybe catching up on that scotch very soon.
I have consummed a vast amount of the liquid stuff on the last project so will have to go light on the consumption.
hope you get your dirt.
I am sure that you will;)
 
Seminars...

Why not do a seminar instead, with a brief handbook in writing to accompany it, wouldn´t that be a simpler, more profitable way to share your knowledge/experience?

GSJ
 
Having written and published a few books in the past, Dazzling the first step is to get a publisher onboard.

Lots of people write the manuscript first then shop it around - this is the hard way. Less than 1% of manuscripts get published.

Identify three appropriate publishers.
Do a market review on the topic (Amazon is good for this) for both local and overseas books on the topic.

Identify the potential market - investors, people working in the industry (real estate agents, people working for companies who are buying commercial property, etc). Put a figure on the size - locally.

Look at whether the book is transferable to other markets - this generally involves being very general or including specific chapters for nations/regions. This greatly broadens the market.

Develop a chapter guide (a bit more than a contents page) and synopsis, plus a few examples of sections/chapters or similar (of several pages in length) to demonstrate that you can write and showcase your style.

You could consider the ebook approach or self-publishing if you cannot find a local publisher.

Note that commercial property is perceived as a niche area and property is out of favour at this time, so you may find the self-publishing route best for the first book.

I've never self-published, always made sure I have an agreement with a publisher first, but Dale and others have and can give you an idea of the pitfalls.

Oh - and don't expect to make lots of money. I've had books selling 20,000+ copies (enough to qualify as best-sellers in Australia, but sold via the wrong channels to be counted) and the return isn't as much as you may think.

Cheers,

Aceyducey
(A list of about half of the books my partner Jas and I have written are up in my Wordsoup site (www.wordsoup.com.au).
 
Go for it!

Daz,


Suggestion for a Title " The Dirt on Commercial Property"
you said everyone is tightlipped on devulging info, perhaps that will be a additional selling point for you.

Sure the demand may be limited, but it may also generate sales internationally as your tactics may be universal and be useful in other countries.

Perhaps an extra blog teaser on the back of the book from one of the bigger hi-flyers bagging you exposing the commercial market letting out the secrets that they hold so close to themselves.

Food for thought

regardless put me down for a signed copy too!

PM me if you need some help to design the graphics for the cover design.
GOOD LUCK!
 
Hi,

Just a thought, something I've heard about is a technique called "fly catching" - someone mention starting a blog before... well on the blog you could include an email form with the question, "What would you like to know about Commercial Property".

The idea is that your market could tell you what they want to know and that may help you tailor the book (or work out what to put into the book) to satisfy your customers.

The "fly catching" concept is to generate ebooks by creating content based on input from the public.

You select a topic, then set up a page - screen the questions (get the ones with the most occurances) then write an ebook to answer those questions.

Then (in theory) sell the ebook back to the niche market.

In your case you could use it as a guide to determine what to put into your own book - maybe something you think is common sense is the one point everyone asks about.

Regards
Michael
 
Hey there Dazzling,

In line with XBenX’s comments, looking back on the residential prop investment books I found most valuable weren’t the ones that offered a recipe for replication (step 1, decide structure, step 2 source financing, step 3, research etc) but were more the ones that talked about the subjective elements of the process. Don’t give up when your bank declines finance, your Dad may not be your best financial mentor, it is possible to acquire 135 properties in 15 minutes….those sorts of evocative leitmotif’s. I think if you portray your industrial storey’s as you’ve done in these posts, and sprinkle with only a few practical hints, like William Faulkner’s ‘As I lay Dying’ novel, you’ll entice the reader to piece together their own adventure from the multiple perspectives offered, with the right balance of guidance and prescription.

I think it’s a little strange that you appear to be less than confident about what you have to say, as you have a tremendous amount of experience in the field, and are chasing deals that I would regard as career end goals, or the realm of registered property trusts.

In order to save a lot of work, perhaps it would be better to approach the publisher with your intention (confidentiality assumed) rather than the manuscript, and also perhaps the title will come out of discussions re the target market and whether your primary intent is book sales revenue (‘Industrial property investment for dummies’), education (‘A guide to Industrial property investment’…zzzz) or a record of your personal trials and achievements (‘Industrious Property’).

Just some thoughts….

Cheers

Maurice

‘Why eat a cake, when you can have good hair’
 
Go for it Dazz. I would definitely buy a copy. As to what to include, I would approach the book in say 3 parts:

Part 1 - Convincing the reader that commerical property investment is worthwhile and rewarding and perhaps not as hard as one might think. So begin with the basics and concentrate on demystifying the whole industrial/commerical property investment arena.

Part 2 - Now that you've convinced me to consider CIP as a viable investment option, how do I get started? Cover topics like selecting a CIP. ie. what makes a good CIP? How to find tenants? Property management. Getting leases drawn up etc.

Part 3 - OK, so I've taken my first baby steps into the CIP arena and I like this game. I'm getting a bit more confident and looking for more sophisticated deals. Here's where you could perhaps tackle some of the trickier aspects of CIP. Putting together deals, financing etc.

I would definitely include some real life deals and perhaps some case studies. As well as inspiring, I think these bring the message much closer to the reader.

Hope you don't mind my input. Now, go get busy writing...I need this book ;)

Flatout
 
Having some experience with information products for niche markets, I would say that writing books is now pretty much DEAD as a commercial enterprise.

With the amount of royalties that you get, it's not worthwhile unless you sell millions of copies. The only people writing non-fiction books these days are either people who have a need to "establish a reputation", or basically as a lead generation exercise.

All those famous authors you see in the business/investing/non-fiction arenas make 95% of their income through capitalising on the reputation that they gain through the book(i.e. speaking/seminars/consulting etc...) not on the income earned through the book. In the 21st century, a book is literally a lead generation exercise.

Case in point would be Chris Gardner's commercial property book.

The biggest thing about niche markets is that the people actually interested in the information in a book are usually willing to pay a lot more than the price of the book for that information.

That's why you see so many $$$ seminars, DVD sets etc in the "how to make money" niche.

Selling information on the "nitty gritty" of commercial property investing would be very lucrative, however a book is not really the right vehicle for it.
 
When's this fabulous book coming out? It's now 7 months down the track and I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival on the bookshops shelves of "How to build a dazzling multi-million dollar Industrial Property Portfolio!" Or can I, too, get an autographed copy? Or, hang on, what about a tax deductible trip around Australia to do book signings?
 
Dazzling

No excuse for avoiding the book, with all your spare time now :) . I'm in for a copy when its done. BTW well done with LOE

Regards Bushy
 
Agreed.....it's a sad and sorry situation. A full 16 months have passed and not a jot has progessed on this initiative. I offer no excuses.

Did pick up a place last year worth about half a million books, so that's sucked up a bit of time.

I do however, keep running up against this wall of other industrial investors merrily going about their business makign a motza....and keeping their cards close to their chests.

In the end I think it will boil down to whether I want the money or the fame. Weight of numbers given the current gaggle of practitioners goes for the money. Maybe I should replicate my peers.

Bushy - in terms of LOE, we aren't there yet. We've got the wherewithal now, but have not approached the Bank as yet. Seeing as though it'll be their money, and seeing as though they are a bit skittish at the mo', I fear an uphill battle might be looming to actually start LOE.

Anyway...still plodding at work for the time being...better get back to it.
 
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