After a successful career in the motor industry, Scott set up his own company and decided to fulfill his lifelong ambition to write a book. Using his knowledge and experience of the motor trade, he wrote “All Buyers Are Liars: Exposing The Closely Guarded Secrets of Elite Car Sales Professionals” to demonstrate the sales process used within the motor trade and advise other sales people and car buyers of a very successful sales structure.

Tell us about your book – what makes your book different from other books in the same genre?

My book, All Buyers Are Liars: Exposing The Closely Guarded Secrets of Elite Car Sales Professionals, is predominantly about the car sales industry in the UK, starting from as soon as the customer walks through the door to the completion of the sale. It digs into the internal politics of a franchise dealership. The lies that are given and taken from salespeople and customers. A general buyers guide! And of course hints and tips all through the book.

Who should read your book?

Anyone in the car business will benefit from reading the book, from learning about buying signals, customer behaviour, etc. Customers will also benefit by having the information they need to get the best deal.

Why did you write your book?

I wrote the book because after 10 years in the trade my frustration was that the customers didn’t understand the process they were being led through. The majority of people don’t realise that when they walk through the door there are certain steps the salespeople take to get them to buy a car. the customer has their own agenda. The customer doesn’t understand why the salespeople won’t do what they want. This is where confusion occurs. The salespeople get frustrated if they can’t go through the sales process.

What are the 3 key messages your book helps people understand?

1. Buyers can understand the sales process that’s used in the motor industry
2. Establish the lies between the customer and buyer!
3. A behind the scenes outlook on a franchise dealer. Reading the book will show you how dealership life is spent.

With hindsight, what one thing do you wish you knew when you started out writing your book?

I wish I’d been more disciplined in writing the book. It took me 5.5 months to write the book (40,000 words). I didn’t have a set amount of words per day. In the future I would be more disciplined and write a set figure per week to try and speed things up.

What was the most challenging part in going from book idea to getting published?

The most challenging part is the minefield as regards to publishers – after some initial research I found 3 main publishing models:

1. Self-publishing – downside – there’s a cost and there’s no judgement. I wanted to get it published on the basis that someone with experience would read my synopsis and agree it’s a good idea and acknowledge it was good enough to publish.
2. Co-publishing – where you get 5000 printed off and you share the cost of that print – damage limitation to the publishers.
3. Mainstream publishing – where they pay for the books, do the design, design a cover, do the editing and everything else. For them to judge it and agree it was good enough.

I decided to go for a mainstream publisher and chose Lean Marketing Press – they were quick to respond to all my concerns, their royalty scheme is fantastic. Now the book is out it’s proved right. More than happy!

What’s the best thing about being a published author?

The best thing is creating a work deemed to be of a certain standard and now it’s published I can leave that as a legacy. I’m extremely proud of that!

What’s next for you? Other books?

I’d like to write 1 book per year – I think that’s easily achievable.

Is there anything else you want to tell people?

I’ve also started a company called So Presentable – we’re a sales consultancy. We’ll gain and retain customers for our clients. From prospecting their existing database, creating a blog, sorting out email addresses, making the company more visual, improving their systems,doing presentations on powerpoint – if you need more get in touch at SoPresentable.co.uk.

Contact Scott

• http://allbuyersareliars.co.uk
• http://sopresentable.co.uk/

Buy Scott’s Book

• Buy the print book (UK)
• Buy the print book (International)

The Old Risk & Reward Rules

Traditionally, the publishing pecking order went (and still goes in many cases) something like this…

The bookstore (via the wholesaler) is the main link to the customer (and therefore the money) for a geographically defined area and so the bookstore lays down the law to the publisher. Bookstore Law includes: crippling discounts (55% and up), stretched-out payment terms (90 days+), paying bribes to guarantee visibility (read this article from The Times if you don’t believe me http://su.pr/2Y14b3) the option to return in any condition/destroy/remainder any unsold books – for a full refund.

The publisher (sometimes in cahoots with the agent) is the main link to the bookstores and so they lay down the law to the authors. Publisher Law includes: not accepting  submissions unless through a recognised agent, paying pitiful royalties (typically 7-10% of whatever’s left once the bookstore has been paid – of which a percentage will have to go to their agent too), preventing the author from taking other book deals elsewhere, paying the author once per year – assuming they’ve made more money than they got paid as an advance.

The poor author (who, don’t forget, is the only one providing the raw talent) is at the bottom of the pile and lays down the law to nobody. This pecking order also translates into a pretty unfair divvying up of the risks and rewards.

The following charts illustrate a typical risk (based on effort, opportunity cost and financial exposure) – reward (based on retail price of book) split for the old publishing model…

It hardly seems fair that the stakeholder who risks the least should be rewarded the most but – when there was no internet, no social networks and no other way to reach your target market other than by getting your book on the bookshelves – they had a monopoly on the vital asset – customers and got paid accordingly.

The New Risk & Reward Rules

With the new rules in effect the pecking order looks quite different…

The bookstore (via the wholesaler) is one link to the customer (and therefore the money) along with international online bookstores (like Amazon and many smaller specialist stores), ebook retailers (using mobile technology and the internet), mail-order bookstores and Print On Demand book vending machines (such as The Espresso Book Machine).  Traditional bookstores can no longer lay down the law because they no longer have exclusive access to customers. This means crippling discounts (55% and up) are no longer tolerated, stretched-out payment terms (90 days+) are no longer acceptable, wasteful returns policies are no longer viable. Added to this, the highstreet bookstore (with shelves and carpets) has the highest overheads of all the retail channels.

The publisher is one link to the bookstores (via the wholesaler) but the author now has the option to cost-effectively self-publish (with distribution built-in). Old-style Publishers can no longer lay down their law because they no longer have exclusive access to the retail channel. This means agents are no longer tolerated by authors, the pitiful royalties look bad compared to what the author could make by going it alone, the author will expect more control over their content in the various formats enabled such as ebooks and audio.

The empowered author (who can finally see a way to be paid fairly for providing the raw talent) is now in a position to choose their own publishing route. This new level of choice for the author and the new routes available means the distribution of risk and reward is shifting to a much more balanced picture.

The following charts illustrate a typical risk (based on effort, opportunity cost and financial exposure) – reward (based on retail price of book) split for the Publishing 2.0 model…

The result is that publishers playing by the new rules and their authors can decide to tolerate traditional bookstores but they no longer have to give in to their demands.

Most traditional bookstores have had it their own way for too long and until they adjust their terms or shrink their overheads, something they’re still very much resisting, in light of the new rules, many of them will lose the new game and go the same way of the myriad record stores who were casualties of the same recent shake-up in the music industry.

There are only really 3 publishing models but lots of different names for vanity publishing…

1. Paid For Publishing aka “Vanity Publishing”: If you pay someone else to publish your book it could be called collaborative publishing, cooperative publishing, subsidy publishing or (most misleadingly of all) self publishing but it’s really just vanity publishing with a more acceptable title. Some big-sounding New York and London publishers are offering “deals” to new authors with a high cost attached. These “deals” are really nothing more than an attempt to cash in on their name and sell an overpriced vanity package.
2. Self Publishing: No matter what the vanity press says – it’s not self publishing unless you’re doing it all yourself. Obviously you may employ people to provide certain skills but you are still the publisher and the buck (or should that be book) stops with the author and only the author. This is further split into two main approaches:
   1. Print-On-Demand Self Publishing – Low Risk with Good Distribution Built In (providers include LightningSource, Lulu, CreateSpace and BookSurge)
   2. Print-Then-Sell Self Publishing – High Risk with No Distribution Built In (there’s no longer a good reason to publish this way unless you only plan to sell books direct)
3. Mainstream Publishing: These organisations pay you for your book. There’s a lot of competition from authors here so fewer and fewer publishers are offering big (or any) advances anymore and many still insist you apply via an agent. However – they won’t expect you to pay them a penny for your book and they will expect to be sending you royalties. Mainstream publishers really fall into 3 main categories:
   1. Big Publishing Houses – New York Publishers, London Publishers etc. – most aspiring authors dream of getting a huge advance from these companies. First timers should expect tiny royalties and dwindling advances.
   2. Independent Publishers – usually smaller publishers that only publish a few titles per year. These companies are often specialist in nature and can provide a good start for many authors. However, they’re still crippled by the old print-then-sell rules and aggressive terms from bookshops so don’t expect to earn a big royalty,
   3. Publishing 2.0 Publishers – again, usually smaller publishers that have embraced new technology for both production, distribution and sales. Good publishers embracing the new rules of the publishing game are able to pay much higher royalties because they no longer rely on bricks-and-mortar bookstores for their sales.

Here’s a quick matrix from Publishing Academy that plots some of the main differences…