SIMPLY HER

January 2007

By Yanni Tan

BECOME A PUBLISHED AUTHOR

MERRY RIANA, 26, is a trainer and entrepreneur. She wrote and published A Gift From A Friend, a self-help book that chronicles her journey from school into business and gives practical advice on how to achieve financial freedom.

How was your book conceived?

I decided to write this book in 2005. I was just 25 but had made quite a few achievements in my career. I had paid off my $40,000 university loan, had broken industry records and received sales awards from my employers, an insurance company. While I had groomed a few people in my team, I realized that my contribution to society was limited.

So this was the motivation for your book?

Yes, I had taken charge of my life, found success, and wanted to share my experiences and success tips. Writing allowed me to reach out to young people and inspire them to live their dreams, achieve success and financial independence in their early working career, so that they can give back to society.

How did you get published?

I chose to self-publish, which cost me about $10,000 just for printing. This didn’t include marketing, editing, layout and design. But self-publishing gave me more freedom to decide on how to publicize and distribute my book. I printed 2,000 copies initially, all of which have been in major bookstores since July 2006. At least 1,000 copies have been sold, which according to my distributor is a good result. It’s a bestseller at Borders and Kinokuniya.

How long did the whole process take?

My husband and I penned down all the ideas and principles that I use daily to motivate my salespeople and in my training workshops. Over a one-month period, I would write for three to four hours daily, usually in the evenings. The process from manuscript-to-print took another month. I was fortunate to have a good printing company to help me in this process.

What were some of the challenges that cropped up along the way?

One of the challenges was dealing with the bookstores. I found out, by knocking on the doors of major book retailers, that bookstores prefer dealing with distributors to individuals.

TIP!

Write simply and with the reader in mind, so that your ideas will be easily understood, and engage a good editor to proof-read your work.

BEST RESOURCE

A good distributor. I’m happy to recommend mine – MarketAsia Distributor ( www.marketasia.com.sg) – which helped me place the book in local stores.

To know more about Merry Riana and her Organization, MRO, you can visit www.merryriana.com.sg or email merry@merryriana.com.sg.