Real Estate Secrets Exposed

Back in 2003 I wrote an eBook called “Real Estate Secrets Exposed / Tricks of the Trade Most Realtors Don’t Want You to Know”

Looking closely at it now I notice there is a typo in the title. Oy vey! Or is it? I can not believe I would have missed that apostrophe in “Realtor’s”. Plus many people read it before I published it and I find it hard to believe they all missed it too. “Realtor” is a proper noun or a title or something like that and was supposed to be capitalized. Maybe that is why? I don’t remember. Any proof readers or English majors in the house?

Anyway, if you are so inclined you can read the book. Click here to read Real Estate Secrets Exposed.

Since I am a bit of a narcissist, coupled with a slight amount of self-loathing, I frequently Google myself. Today I found something interesting. Over at this website I discovered my book… for sale at $9.99! Now I never gave anyone permission to sell Real Estate Secrets Exposed. In fact at the beginning of my book I wrote out the reprint rights. It states-

“Feel free to reprint or give this eBook as a special bonus for your subscribers of your ezines or newsletters, or give it to your friends or colleagues, just post it on your website or distribute it as you see fit as long as you do not change it in anyway, leave all copyright indications in place and do not take credit for writing it.”

Now I guess, technically, one could reword it as this-

“Feel free to reprint…this eBook…or distribute it as you see fit as long as you do not change it in anyway, leave all copyright indications in place and do not take credit for writing it.” I guess technically they did as I wrote but I never said they could sell it. I have a suspicion they have not sold a single copy (there is that self-loathing part) since who is gonna spend ten bucks on this 11 year old book? Sure there are a lot of golden nuggets in there but really times have changed and I did not update it since I wrote it.

Side note: Back in 1998 or so my friend Paul wrote a non-fiction book and in it he said something like “Go out and get a computer.” Last year he re-wrote the book for Kindle and recorded it on an amazing 8-CD set. We talked a lot about updates and were amazed how much things had changed in the last decade. Sure, the basics are the same but things like “Go buy a computer” are very different. I have more power in my smart phone than in that computer Paul suggested way back then. Anyway, real estate is no different.

I guess I should sit down for a minute and re-read it front to back. (Especially the ‘About the Author’ part. Man, I was one busy stud back then. “Ok, calm down Mr. Narcissist.”) I did skim through it for a minute and that brought back a bunch of memories. I remember my friend Will Fowler said there were too many thank you’s. (Does an apostrophe go there? It seems like it should but…) Will wrote Reporters: Memoirs of a Young Newspaperman which was really interesting. You can get it here.

The other thing that was funny is how even back then I was doing stuff like linking and keyword spamming. Today I do a lot of linking and I try to avoid the spamming. 🙂 (Nobody likes shady people like the folks that produce and sell the negative ion power balance bracelet.) There is a part in Real Estate Secrets Exposed where I write how I work in Burbank and service the San Fernando Valley and I go on to mention every single city in The Valley. That is sort of frowned upon. Still it makes me laugh.

The future of Real Estate Secrets Exposed

So… what am I going to do about this? I called in my three closest and most trusted advisors- Brenna, Paul and Michael who wrote Little Black Book of Stage Hypnosis Secrets. All three suggested what I was thinking- a strongly worded cease and desist letter. Yep, that will probably be in order. Yet like Paul said, I am not yet famous enough to be concerned about making much, if any money, off me so to not worry and let it go after the letter.

What I was thinking is this- One of the projects on my back burner in my quest to become a Micro-Mogul is to write books. I do not want to tip my hand just yet but these books will be sold on Amazon mostly in Kindle format but in print on demand mode as well. I think I should put this book on Amazon as a sort of practice drill so as to learn the system.

HA! I just thought of something. I believe Amazon counts books that are given away with a special redemption code the same as a sale. So maybe, just for kicks, I can give away a bunch of these books and have many people download it for free all on the same day. Since I know no one is going to buy it, it’s not like I will be losing any money. Maybe this will put me on a Best Seller list. Hmmm…

Yes. That would be super cool. (See? There is the narcissist part.)

So, what do you think I should do?
And can I count on you to download the book for free if I put it on Amazon?

Leave you answers in the comments below.