Write Your Way to Riches? The Entrepreneur's Guide to Book Publishing & Promotion

Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Ayede. I solve sales and marketing challenges. I'm making today's podcast in my house, so expect to hear the usual audio interruptions. Now, the goal of the podcast is business education. So please spread the word by the time you're done. Tell your friends and your family, Nigerians, home and abroad so that they can benefit from the questions that we tackle. They can do that by subscribing on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of their choice.

And if you have any sales and marketing questions, bring them to me. You can call, you can SMS, you can WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Today on the show, I want to share some discussions that I've been having with one or two people. And well, there's someone I know, listener of the podcast, who has written a book. And of course there are people who reach out to me every now and then. You know how, oh boy, you've been doing this for a while, you should write a book.

And someone says, I'm about to get into business. I want to write a book. And there are lots of people who want to get into business and who want to use the book as the primary means of growing the business, as a primary means of getting in sales. Let me repeat now, lots of people who want to get into business and they want to write a book. The main reason for writing the book is that they want to use that to grow the business.

They want to use that to grow the sales. So today we're going to be freestyling on a number of things related to book writing. So the first question I want to consider is why should a business person publish a book or write a book? So there's some of you who are looking at things in the right direction because you know that if you publish a book, it's going to give you authority and it's going to give you credibility.

It's going to give a certain measure of trust, and that is going to make it easier to now pull sales. Let me repeat, some of you are looking at it correct now. If I write a book, authority plus credibility equals people trust me. If people trust me, it'll be easier to get in sales. Some of you are also saying if I publish a book, there's brand visibility, there's recognition. These are the things that make it easier for me to sell.

Some people even say you can use the book itself as a source of lead generation. Now remember that when we say leads on this podcast, we mean any single person who has done something to show that they might be interested in your product or service. So in other words, somebody who has bought a copy of your book, it might be a sign that the person is interested in your product or service and maybe it's time for you to now upsell them into coaching, consulting or whatever.

There are some people who take it a step further. You know, they write their books. I've seen this done in the West. I haven't seen any Nigerian business author do this yet. But you write the book and within the book you put several calls to action so that when somebody takes that call to action, it's it's even a stronger sign to show that this person might be interested in your product or your service. So I don't know, let's say you write a book on the fundamentals of, OK, let's use industrial cleaning since I think the last case study we discussed on the product and the pro on the podcast, sorry, was from Anita who called in on my radio show in Abuja who wanted to know the,

the lowdown on getting into the business of industrial cleaning. So let's say you publish a book on the, I don't know the fundamentals of industrial cleaning or whatever. And, and in one of the chapters you put there that if anybody's interested in learning about industrial cleaning, that you have created a certain website that all they have to do is go to www.whatever and put in the promo code. Put in the promo code.

Yes, I can. And it will enable the person to join the WhatsApp community and get 50% off on the course or whatever. So you can see that by putting that call to action in specific chapter in the book, anybody who does that, it's a strong sign that, look, this person is interested. So there are ways that you can use books for lead generation. That is to get people to show that they might be interested in your product or your, your or ServiceNow books also lead to new business opportunities.

People see your books, they're like, OK, this is the very guy, this guy shop, this baby shop, who knows? So all these sorts of things. And ultimately people who are some people who are thinking of publishing books also want to look at it as a diversified revenue stream. So consulting down is there, I'm making some money. Speaking, no one is there, I'm making some money. What else? You know, if you have a physical product, physical product you're selling, you're making some money.

Then if you also collect one or two coins per book, now it's also won't be bad. But however, let me warn you guys, for those of you who think that there's money in making the book, I have had this one in America, I've had this in the UK and I've had this in Nigeria. Maybe it applies, It doesn't apply in a different country. But as of today in America, in the UK and in Nigeria, selling a book is not a good way to make money.

The profit per book is not much to make correct bar when you sell books, you have to sell loads and loads of copies. And I know people who publish a book and maybe they sell 304 hundred, 500 copies. That is not the kind of that's not the kind of thing that you say you've, you've, you've collected, you've collected good money, especially since for most people the, the art of writing the book is going to be several months in the making.

You know, three months, five months, you know, one year you write, editor will edit, you go back, you rewrite, publisher will give opinion, you will come back, you rewrite all that stress at the end of the day to sell 500 copies, you know, on top which you're making a few 100 naira on top one copy because of course you has to pay the printer and the publisher. So maybe there's some other country where the unit economics are different and you know, if you sell a bunch of books, you you make some correct money.

But in Nigeria, other 2025 in America and in the UK, except if you're one of those blockbuster people, forget it, you're not going to make money from your book. So somebody like Obama, yeah, Obama and his wife, they made good money from their books, but that's because they already had notoriety and fame in other things and people are looking forward to it. So those kinds of people, they drop the book today, they really have like 1,000,000 people don't want to buy now it's different.

So put it in Nigerian context, you're making a few few 100 per copy and if you drop today 1,000,000 people buy. Do the math. You can see that OK, the money is now beginning to make sense because even if it's only 6600 seven 700, now you're making per copy 1,000,000 people buy it on the spot. Do the math. So a book as a revenue stream, as a W time author, I beg just close your eyes. It's not going to make sense. The other things would make sense, authority, credibility,

brand recognition, networking, business opportunities, all those other things would make sense. But if it comes to the money, forget that thing Jerry. It's just academic. You have the money. You will see. There's not going to be pure like people say won't be correct money. Then I've heard and this one I agree because since I've been running a podcast now for over 5 years and over 1000 episodes, I can see that yes, if you're going to write a book, it will clarify your thinking and expertise.

Because having to collect my thoughts every single time I'm about to make a podcast episode. Look, even if it's a podcast episode where I'm ranting, at least I have to calm down for like 5 minutes. And I think, OK, I want to rant, I want to insult somebody. You know, how am I going to package this insult? So if nothing else, you have to sit down and gather yourself. So the process of sitting down and gathering yourselves will clarify your thinking.

And this thing will help you shape your shape, your expertise like you will help groom and grow, grow, grow you into the professional, into the authority that you will become. Because you can't just write a book and be writing anyhow. Anyhow, you write to the left, you right to the right. You got to sit down, organize yourself. What am I saying in this chapter? How am I going to lay out my thoughts? OK, I wrote the whole thing in 5000 words, the 5000 words too much.

Will people read it? OK, let's edit it down. What did the publisher say? What did the editor say? OK, was I off point here? Was I correct here? So all of those things, I mean, they go into the equation. Then people, there's some people who want to write a book because I want to leave a legacy, but this one is not a business something now. So these are some of the reasons why you as a business person listen to this podcast right now.

You might want to consider publishing a book, but for people who have approached me to say, guy, you have more than enough material to write a book. And actually it is true because as of today, this is like 1 thousand 1100 and something episodes. If you go and check the YouTube, you know, they're they're all there because if you're listening to this on Spotify, you won't see the number of published episodes. But if you go to YouTube and you check the channel, it's a tab pod that is TAVPOD.

So if you go to YouTube tab pod, one word, you'll see there. It's almost 1200 audio resources that I have now. So yes, somehow, somehow there's enough for a book there, but I'm not going to publish a book because there is one thing that people do not consider and that is writing a book is one thing. Selling a book is an entirely different matter. Writing the book is easy. Somebody will say, how can I say writing a book is easy?

Writing a book is blood, set and sweat and tears. I agree with you. It is blood, sweat and tears, but if you think writing the book is blood, sweat and tears, wait until you try and sell the book because a lot of us have things that we want to say we think is important with things at the back of our minds. It does not necessarily mean that people want to sit down and read 400 pages or whatever it is of what we think is important.

Selling a book is hard, to be honest, I don't know. I don't know if I want to go through that stress of selling a book. Writing a book is easy. Selling the book is hard. And if you think about it, some of you check in your families, you know people that have written books, published 500 copies, only sold 20. The remaining 480 something where is it is inside the store or is inside your wife's wardrobe. This thing happens all the time.

Writing the book is easy. Selling the book is hard almost. I don't know if I'm ready for all that. And then plus, if these are the main reason why as a business person, This is why you want to publish a book. You think that publishing a book will help you grow your sales because of the authority and credibility that it gives you, because of the trust, because of the brand recognition that it will give you, because of lead generation opportunities.

If these are the things you're looking for, in my own opinion, you can achieve those same aims by doing other things that require less effort. If you engage in public speaking, you will build authority, credibility, and trust. You will get some brand visibility and recognition. It will lead to business opportunities and you will get some lead generation from there. You will also get diversified revenue streams. Public speaking, I think it is easier to try and become a public speaker even if you're going to be a mediocre public speaker.

It's easier to do that than to say you want to be an average author. So try public speaking first before you go to the whole book thing. Then if you also do long form digital content, you can become an authority, you can become a brand, and you can get lead generation. So people say that blogs are no longer working. By the way, it depends. Financial blogs. I've seen financial blogs and I've seen legal blogs that people follow.

So on a popular level, people like you and me, yes, we're not reading blogs anymore. But in highly technical spaces, blogs still work. There are people who read engineering blogs. There are people who read medical blogs. There are people who lead legal blogs. The highly specialized industries, blogging is still working. So you're a baby lawyer. You're coming into this space one day you want to become an authority in oil and gas.

It's OK to say that. You know what? Let me start blogging or let me start submitting articles for the MBA Journal. MBA is the Nigerian Bar Association, that's the body that all of we lawyers belong to. You can start sending in publications to the MBA. So articles that'll be published in MBA Journal, you know, stuff like that long form stuff, blogging articles or like in my own case the podcast. These things can lead to authority, credibility, brand recognition, and opportunities for new business.

And I think these things are easier to do than writing a book or trying to sell the book. And there's some of you who are real master for that PR. You can use PR to the same ends. So in my own opinion, should a business person write a book, publish a book? Oh yes, by all means, especially if you're thinking of Naira and Kobo. If you're thinking about leaving a legacy, I don't know is that necessary? But that's just me thinking.

But if you're thinking in terms of Nara and Kabul, Oh yeah, sure. Write the book, publish the book. Just know that writing the book will be the easy part. Selling the book is the hard part. And unfortunately, there are lots of you who get into business. You're not thinking this thing clear. And so you people are starting your business journey by writing the book. That is backwards. There are some of you who are starting your business journey by writing the book and hoping that the book will lead to other things.

Even if you want to write the book, my honest recommendation is yeah, sure, write the book, but don't start off your business journey writing it. We're talking about authority, credibility, trust. In the early days, who knows you? I'm not saying you're useless, I'm just keeping it real here. In the early days you are a non entity. Nobody knows you yet. What book are you writing? What reason does somebody have to pick up your book and to and to know your thoughts?

Nobody knows You remember the example I gave of Obama and his wife? It is Obama. If the guy drops the book my 100 days in office or how me and Trump fought or whatever we're like oh is Obama they will buy the book. But for you, you are a non entity for now. Don't start with the book. Nobody cares who you are. Nobody knows who you are. Remember back in law school was one hard truth that one of our professors had teachers.

One of my classmates was making arguments back and forth and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And my professor for law of evidence, what he told him was, look, this is the position of the law. You will follow the position of the law. You will write the position of the law and the guy was like, but I think, but I think my professor told him nobody cares who you are. Know the law, learn the law, apply the law. When you become something professor so, so and so or Chief Justice so, so, so and so,

people will now want to know what your point of view is. But for now, nobody cares who you are. Learn the law, know the law, apply the law. When you're somebody, your opinion will matter. It's harsh, but it's the truth. Starting your business journey by writing the book is a fool's errand. Nobody knows who you are. Nobody cares who you are. I mean, look at me. Yes. Over 1000 podcast episodes. You think that's impressive?

Born on a grand scale in Nigeria, to be honest. Who knows me? You're listening. You've been listening for a while. There's some of you that really love and respect what I do. The people who reach out on average have been listening for over a year. I know someone who's been listening for about 3 years. But just try. Go and talk to Momsy, talk to Popsy, talk to your girlfriend, talk to somebody in the office or in church on a national scale who knows Me, myself, I'm a non entity.

For me to write this book now, it is a fool's errand. How many copies do I hope I'm going to be able to sell anyway? So that's the first question. As a business person, why should you bother publishing a book? Now I'm going to move on and give some ideas about how to promote your book because unfortunately some of you, you didn't think this thing through. Somebody remember someone who listens to the podcast, she has already written the book.

So the book is already there. So for me to be saying all these things now is a waste of time because she has already written the book. So some of you have already written the book, some of you are already in the process of writing the book. So now we have to look at the question how to promote your book, whether it's a fictional book or a business book. Because remember I said that writing the book is the easy part. Selling the book is the hard part.

In fact, selling of anything is the hard part. But you who don't really, you are underestimating how hard it is to sell a book, the amount of work that goes into selling a book. So we're going to look at that, how to promote your book. But I just want to give a caveat because selling books literary, something that is not my specialty. All of you know my background, that my professional and academic background initially was in law, became a wedding photographer, done some stuff in the civil service, and I've done import and export with my brother.

So I export with my brother in Agri business. And then through all this, this is where I picked up an interest and a specialty in sales because people are saying that oh boy, you're good at this thing. Come and teach my people. That's how we started. But selling books, I don't have a specialty there. I have been able to pick up one or two ideas because my cousin, Sue Edward Agema, he runs Savage Publishing and he has been at this game since 2012.

They now have operations in Nigeria and in the UK. And in fact, it's because of the publishing thing that he was able to gain access to global talent status. So he has evaporated. His whole family, he and his family, everybody now is in the UK. You know, they've flown, they've gone, they looked at. The result wasn't say you can go and die in Niger. So so he has gone. So he runs Savage Publishing and they've done over 60 titles if I

can remember. Those are books that they have published and have sold, some successfully, some not so successfully. They have a couple of international awards that they run things like that. But The thing is, at least he's been doing this thing OK enough that he was able to get UK global talent status and that is how they migrated. So for those of you who are thinking of Jackpot, that is also another Ave. If you're an accomplished book publisher, you're an accomplished poet, you're an accomplished musician, you're an accomplished.

You know, there is a there are migration routes that are open to you. You don't have to Jack my like everybody does by, you know, raising 40 million naira and then you get to the UK and then you now become a cleaner. You'll not be cleaning the streets or be walking in Mortuary. Now everybody has to go that route. This UK global talent scheme thing is available. So if you're good at what you do, you put in the work, you have some Rep, you have some cred, you can give it a shot.

You work for my cousin, it might work for you. So from hanging around my cousin now and some of the other people that he hangs around, I've been seeing one or two things. So that's why I'm getting some of my ideas. Then also there are some family members, well, not family members, friends or family who have published. One of them is Colonel Bello Fattily. He actually is a friend of my parents. I'll be, if I say a friend, I'll be acquaintance.

And he used to be the paranoid head for the legal Army unit here in Nigeria. Now the reason why some of you might know him is because he was implicated in the Abacha coup, the phantom coup of 1995 and he was given the death sentence. But then when Abdul Salam Abubakar came in, in 99 was after the death of Abacha, he was he was left free and his death sentence was committed. I mean, he's already said commute and they reduced the death sentence and then the setting free.

So General Abdul Salaam setting free. And then in 2025, Connor Hadley wrote a book. I can't remember the name, it's in my room. I was started reading it now anyway. And I was now looking at Connor Hadley, how he was selling this book because I'm curious because I know that writing a book is easy. Selling the book is really hard. So as Conor fatally was making moves as a small boy who has some back access, no matter how small, I was just looking and saying, OK was was on cool doing was on cool doing.

Then also Bishop Cooker. My parents knew him from back when he was a seminarian. He ended up being the one who officiated at my parents wedding. And Bishop Hooker is publishing at this rate, it's almost like every two, two years he's publishing something. So whenever he releases a new book, me too, I'm always watching like, OK, what's Bishop doing? Although, you know, we, the kids, we just named as Father Cooker. So it's always have to remember to call him Bishop, you know,

now that he's a Bishop. So we're always watching, OK, what's he doing? What's he doing? What's he doing? So for Conor Fadley, all the moves that he was doing public, you know, press interviews, things like that. Ultimately, they did the book launch where they ended up in Yaradua Center. That was this year in 2025. Therefore, Bishop Cooker, I've noticed that for him, since he already has a public persona for him, he usually builds it around public speaking, public lectures, media interviews.

And then of course, he also does launches. And that's how he sells his books. And for him particularly, I've noticed that Bishop Cooker, he likes writing about strategic stuff or relevant stuff. So things that people are already talking about. So don't be surprised if after President Tinibu's term, whether he runs a second term or not, don't be surprised if Bishop Puka releases a series of memoirs about the about the,

what's it called it renewed hope, about the renewed hope, whatever. What was the renewed hope agenda? How did the renewed hope agenda pan out, pan out? How did it affect civil society? How did it affect economic progress? You know, blah, blah, blah. So don't be surprised if he writes a book like that. So that's this thing. It also makes it easy to sell because he's writing about topic of things. So now with that in mind,

telling you guys that look, I'm not a professional when it comes to book and literally something, it's just that because of the family that I come from, I'm related to one or two people and my parents know one or two people. So I've been seeing people do one or two things like my mom's from my boss shoe Banjo who runs Troika. Troika is the is the biggest because my mom was a marketing communications professional and then she worked for for Troika when she got to Lagos.

That's back when I was a teenager and Troika is Troika Holdings comprises of what's it called marketing communications and advertising. That's MCA. That's one of the old advertising agencies in Lagos. Then which one again, the quarter company, that's the public relations. I can't remember what the third one is. So the boss show Banjo is regarded as a as a dawn when it comes to advertising, public relations, you know, stuff like that.

And he publishes book, I can't remember how many years ago. So of course, you know me, I was always, I was also watching. Oh, OK, was also Banjo has dropped the book. OK, what did he do? Where is he speaking? How is he promoting? So this is what I'm getting some of my ideas for. But one thing that I want you guys to realize, those of you who have already written the book just realized that selling the book is a marathon.

There's nobody that has sold the book one time. It doesn't happen that way. Even Obama and Obama's wife didn't sell the book one time. It was a marathon, a series of planned and coordinated activities over months, sometimes even close to a year, that helped to sell the book. I mean, repeat, selling a book is not a one time thing. It is a marathon. It's a series of coordinated events. And that is where some of you fall short.

You go on, you write the book, you're excited, you publish 1000 copies, you do 1 launching at the launching, 20 people by and then you're disappointed. Like what did you expect? You only did one thing, you only did launching. I expect that people are going to buy 1000 copies of your book. Doesn't work that way. It's a multi faceted approach. Before you publish the book, you have to start building buzz. These people start talking about their book before the book drops.

So whether it's kind of a delay or whether it's show banjo or whether it's the Obamas, you start giving small, small interviews. This is my view about this. This is my view about that. And oh, by the way, I have an upcoming book set to drop in. So, so, so and so why I have explored so, so and so issues, particularly in chapter this where we discussed that and that they start doing these things months ahead before the book drops.

They're trying to build buzz. They're trying to show up in places where the audience, that suspected audience might be. So I talk about Father Cook and his old speaking things. You know, you show up at this foundation, this university, this public event, that public event, you start talking, talking, talking, talking. You're doing this for weeks and months before the book drops. Build buzz then if we step away from all these people that have called now and we look at things in the in the modern era, let's say all these people are old school.

Let's say father Kuka is old school corner fatalize old school in the modern era now offer platform is absolutely essential author platform just means what stage do you have? What assets do you have you yourself as the author that is going to sell your own book. So for me, if I ever write a book eventually, the fact that I have this podcast, this podcast is my own platform. I can start toasting you guys one year in advance now.

OK, the book is dropping on for me toasting you guys here. I'm priming and getting some buzz here. I might be able to sell a few 1000 copies. I might because overall downloads now on the podcast is close to 32,000 on podcasts. So on Spotify, I have close to 3000 followers. I don't know about Apple and all the other places. So who knows. In 10 years, I want to write a book. This is my platform. I can start toasting you guys one year in advance, come up with some promo schemes, come up with some stuff.

I might be able to sell a few 1000 copies here through this podcast. So if you want to use your book for business purposes, you, the author, you guys to have a platform in, in, in, in, in. In today's day and age, what is your platform? Some authors are big on social media. Have you started building on social media presence? Some people have author sites, author blog. Have you started building your site, your blog? Although in America and in the UK, they're big on this whole e-mail list, as per the author himself already has e-mail list or the author herself, like Obama's wife, Mrs. Obama, what's her name?

So I can't remember her name. Forgive me. She has her own e-mail list. So the next time she's writing another book, she already has the e-mail addresses of, you know, I don't know, hundreds of thousands of people and she can send them e-mail to say you like my last book. Guess what? New one dropping August 20. You know 2029 where we talk about this, this this my fight with Trump, My this, my dad, my dad, my dad. If you love it, click here to pre-order.

Now. If you have a list of a few 1000 people you send that kind of e-mail out, you will get a few 100 or a few 1000 people clicking and pre ordering the book. Money has already started dropping into your account before you have even dropped the book. So you want to be an author nowadays, whether business book, whether fictional book, you got to start thinking about your platform. So I won't publish, but if I do well, at least I have one platform, which is the podcast.

I don't have a website and I don't have an e-mail list. So if I decide to write a book, I will seriously consider all those sorts of things because selling a book is hard. And it will help if for weeks and months leading up to when I drop the book. There's places where I can be dropping messages saying two months to go. Click on this, get this discount or click on this. Not only will you get a copy of the book, you will have a chance to sit with me and do guest reading at Hilton Hotel in Abuja and Sheraton Hotel in Lagos.

You know, come up with some marketing campaigns or something. I will start creating the platforms where I can start marketing this book and building bus before the book drops. Now, those of you who are writing the book or those of you who are, you've already written the book. Can you see the work that lies ahead of you? And remember I told you that if this thing is about the money, selling 500 copies will not give you good money.

Selling 500 copies, selling 1000 copies, hell, selling 2000 copies will not give you good money. You can see why I say it is hard. And that's why for some business people, I tell that, oh, this book thing, just channel all your attention into building your business first, the main business before you go on this book thing. It will pay you more to channel all this energy. OK, The example I gave was industrial cleaning.

It will pay you, will profit you more in my own opinion, to take all this time and energy into building a wonderful industrial cleaning business than to say you want to make a killing by writing a book on industrial cleaning. That's my own primary advice. The book thing, OK, it makes sense, but China, your energy, build the business first. You will get some good paper coming through the business then investing in 3-4 years is getting a book and then you're only able to sell 1000 copies at the end of the day.

Anyway, I'm stop talking, OK, Literary communities, OK, This one that I saw my cousins, my cousin do and that's why I know that is work. You have to engage in literary communities die as in you will travel online clubs, you have to be there, offline clubs, you have to be there Lagos Literary Meeting Association of these authors, whatever. You will travel up and down because before my cousin left for the UK or more, he was always on the road.

Today Benway State, tomorrow Port Accord, then Lagos, then Enugu, then Abuja, then that. That's just the level of work that is involved. The people in the community, they need to know you, they need to see you and you're trying to build the buzz. You're trying to be on stage. Talk about this, your upcoming book or the upcoming project that you're working on. The people need to see you. You will travel die if you don't have money for flight.

Think about it, Stop calculating the thing in your head. Now you live in Abuja, you went overnight bus to go to Lagos, how many hours is that? And then of course, on the online thing, literary blogs, you know, you should be showing up other people's blogs, contributing on their blogs, talking about your upcoming books on their blogs. For those who are able to get to media houses, it will help if you know somebody in Channels TV.

It will help if you don't know somebody in Channels TV but in your state there's a local newspaper. Well, if you can get there, it might help. Then there's the publication and launch itself. There's some people who do self-publishing and who do print on demand. Print on demand just means I don't want to print 1000 copies and then I only sell 20. Print on demand just means if somebody wants the book, they will click the person, the publisher will print it and then send it to them.

Now that option is available on Amazon and it's mostly a way that Nigerian authors reach people in diaspora. Not really here. You know, we haven't really. And I don't know why somebody who's in the book space will explain it one day, but mostly Nigerians in diaspora. So yeah, people who want your book, they will click and then a halfway house will just publish the thing, you know, print it, bind it and then send it to them specifically so that you don't have to publish 1000 books and the end of the day you only sell 20.

So self-publishing, printing on demand that's available on Amazon. Then I also hear that there's something called Okada Books in Nigeria that is an E platform that you can do that through. But please verify that is what I hear. Like I said, I hang around my cousin, I hang around a couple of people. So I have not gone on Okada Books and I have not used Okada Books, but I hear please want to verify that you can do self-publishing printing on demand through Okada Books.

Then what else? If you're the old school type, you already printed 5000 copies of your book, then you have to work out physical distribution and this is where I said the travelling is going to happen. Abuja, we don't really have bookstores like that. Let me be honest with you, the big bookstores, they're in Lagos and then in the East. So you will have to travel. I don't know how, you only do e-mail and phone call and you're going to end up in local stores.

I don't know how that's going to work, but you need to end up in local stores. You will have to travel. There are literary festivals that happened in the East that happened in Lagos. My cousin was able to organize with some other people in literary festival that has gone on like 5 or 6 editions now. In fact, he still flies back to attend that one. He flew back like 3-2 three months ago to attend the one that happened in Benue State.

So these things happen. You, you've printed the books, you will have to be at these events. You go on bystand or you go on by stall. You have to figure out a way to do pop ups at different markets. Then there's also direct sales. Direct sales just means you hustle your own book whether you like it or not. For people who sell physical stuff, direct sales is something that they do. When I spoke about America, that's Magnisi who does exquisite leather bags in Nigeria, luxury letter bags based in Abuja for how that's how she started her and her husband caught.

So join, do everything. You make 50 copies. You now go and put the 50 copies in your car and that's it. Begin the hustle direct sales. You drive to somebody's office, you want to sell one or two bags. If the person likes it, our Co workers are there. You try and sell again on the day you're tired. You tell your husband, oh honey, I've been able to make one or two orders. I tell the house girl, drop it in husband's car.

Honey, during your break, please go and drop it at this place, this place, that place that is direct sales. You will have to hustle your book. You take a few copies, put it in the boot of your car because you never know, you'll be talking to somebody. Maybe they're interested. Oh, the book is here. It's not that expensive. It's just too far. For one, you can buy 10 copies right now. You will have to do direct sales then those of you who have really creative types, you I'm sure that ways you'll figure out partnerships and collaborations.

But you can see now what I'm saying, you can see that level of hassle that is involved in selling the book, which is why I think you're better off just focusing on your business than on trying to go and use the book first to enter into business, then launch. Yeah, launch and events I have. So this was one that Connor fatally did well and he's even one that IBB Ibrahim by the most Babangida. He was military president from AT when I was a kid.

He was president. I think he's cool. Came over. OK. No, it was Buhari that I think Buhari came in first. Buhari knocked off. There was a civilian president in 1980, one 1982, I can't remember his name, you know, as an embryo then. So I can't remember all these things. So Buhari school come first and then I think after that Baba Gida school and then Baba Gina ends up being president from like 85 on to until a Batcha. So IBB also released his own memoirs.

That's not long after, kind of a delay. In fact, some people are saying that what's wrong with all these colonels and generals while all of them dropping books at the same time. So that's one strategy that they did very, very well. So corner fatalism was Yara Dua center invited everybody. IBB zone was the same thing. You know, presidents were there, governors were there, you know, correct balls on the media, you know, stuff like that.

I had IBB even got involved in quarreling with people on Twitter. And of course that kind of thing helps if IBB is quarreling with people on Twitter is now wow, see, general is dragging people. Now. What did general say? In fact, let me go and buy the book. So launches and events, yes, that can be done if you're one of those types. Unfortunately, I don't know how to plan, Shishi. I can't plan gang. If you tell me to come organize event for you, I have no idea who to invite or how to invite or how to plan.

Oh, and then there's all there's also targeted, targeted advertisements. You can advertise online. So to be honest, we've already done 40 minutes. And The thing is you can keep on going on and on and on and on and on about how you can sell a book. But the point I was just trying to make is selling a book is hard. Selling a book is a marathon. It's not a one day event. For those of you who tried, you try to organize the launch.

You bring down 1000 copies. You only sold 20. Now you know what you did wrong. What you did wrong was you thought that this thing is a one time thing. You didn't realize there is a marathon that is a sequence of events. So go back, start again and start coordinating a sequence of events now lead up to you selling copies, moving units. It is because of this hassle at level of work that is involved that I tell a lot of people who come to me with this whole book thing.

That's why I tell you don't write a book. The thing is not that I am jealous of you and I don't want you to progress. That's why I'm I'm saying don't write the book. In case that some of you who think, oh, I'm just trying to hold you down that me, I haven't written my own book. So if you ask me, I'm trying to let me try and keep you small. I'm just trying to tell you that look from a sales and business development perspective, I know how hard it is to sell a book and I know how hard it is to try and sell your product or service.

It is easier to sell your product or service and to sell the book. So if you want to break into the industrial cleaning space, it will be easier for you to build a solid business in industrial cleaning first, then later on write the book than to say, I am entering into industrial cleaning, let me write to the book and use the book to lead my way into the whole thing. So please, some of you, you're thinking backwards. If you've already written the book, no problem.

Use Google, use ChatGPT, talk to people who are in the industry and come up with a sequence of activities. This one is not just one thing. Remember when I spoke about the Obamas and the other people that spoken about, none of them did only one thing. Even Oprah Winfrey or all these other people who write books, they never do just one thing. Go and visit here, talk there beyond this blog, beyond this TV, beyond this interview.

Have your own platform, send to your mailing list, talk on podcast. Look whichever one that is available to you. Shah, come up with a sequence of activities that you will coordinate for several weeks or several months before the book drops. And I think I've overstressed my point, so I'll stop here. That's all for today. Remember, if you have questions around sales and marketing, bring them to me. Call me, SMS me, send me a WhatsApp message 108064662140.

Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you at the next episode.