Real-life story of a real estate author and Quick Poll

My daughter thinks her mother is cool to be an author. Apparently, none of her classmates’ parents has the same profession. The truth is: There is barely any local competition. The reason is: Unless you are publishing assessment books, you can’t make a living out of writing books in Singapore. Being an author is more a hobby than a job.

After spending 15 months writing and editing a manuscript, I decided to do a pre-order for my new self-published book Behind The Scenes of The Property Market: Finding The Truths and Exposing The Lies of A Not-So-Transparent Industry – so there is at least some money to pay for layout and printing. Also, I could decide on the print quantity based on the number of orders.

During the book’s pre-order from October 30 to November 6, I was like people falling in love: Checked my handphone restlessly whenever I had a minute. Then smiled at the screen when there were new messages (of orders) popping up.

We are in a recession now. I should be happy with whatever number of orders I could get. Afterall, it is a book about private properties which is not basic need but optional want or non-essential desire in difficult times.


Where is my book?

The pre-order page stated clearly that all paperbacks would be delivered by end of November. But the moment anxious buyers placed an order, they would follow up with an enquiry on the actual delivery date. The week after the pre-order, every day I received more e-mails asking me the whereabouts of their book than getting new orders.

I would like to believe that the buyers are looking forward to reading my new book. Sometimes I would forget about things I ordered online. But since the outbreak of Covid-19, I look forward to the delivery of anything I bought from the internet. In uncertain times, we need something to look forward to. We need more certainties over things like delivery timeline to make up for the ambiguities over the availability or effectiveness of a vaccine.

I am aware that, unlike the US where authors can take book pre-orders as early as six months in advance, people here expect you to deliver your book right after they place an order.

A friend reminded me that times are bad. People need to be “creative” to make money. Like the flooding of dodgy property investment schemes, there are many eCommerce scams going around these days. Some may suspect that it is a spam e-mail or a fictitious webpage to collect book pre-order money when there is no new book.

Frankly, I don’t think any con artist will be interested to pick Vina Ip for a fake profile in a scam. It is obvious that her writings lack that exciting promise to share secrets on how to get rich quick by co-investing with others, buying properties with no money down, or trading in your HDB flat to buy two private homes with no ABSD. It is also highly unlikely that she will strongly recommend or encourage others to buy anything. If she has no market value, there is no point impersonating her for a scam.


The books are finally here

Under phase two office guidelines, there are work delays due to employees coming to work on alternative days and at staggered working hours. The design and printing of my new book also took longer than expected.

Once in my dream, the printer informed me that it would take one whole month for printing. That was unbelievable! I woke up from the nightmare and was really upset. The next morning I asked them to confirm the printing schedule. To my relief, they reassured me that printing would take one week after approval of the files.

One week was perfectly fine. Two days ago, I just sprained my ankle – the same old injury from hiking and running during my younger days. It would take seven days for a full recovery. I would be well by the time the books were printed.

Little did I know that the salesperson decided to underpromise and overdeliver. The books were delivered to my house two days earlier.

I still remember back in 2014, the publisher sent the pre-order of my first book No BS Guide to Property Investment to my house for autograph. It was raining heavily throughout the night. For some reason the drainage of the balcony was clogged. Rainwater overflowed from the second floor to the ground floor. This only happened once out of the 13 years we stay here. And it happened on the day I had boxes of my new books stacking up in the living room!

Lately, it was raining every night. To avoid the same mishap again, I had to finish autograph and mail out the books as soon as possible. I quickly converted the living room into a temporary factory, with a production line for unpacking the books, stacking them up for autograph, inserting into bubble envelopes and repacking back into boxes.

At first, my two daughters were excited to help in this novel home factory. But they were soon bored and gave up after the tenth book.

Fortunately, I grew up helping my mother with home consignments from factories. I was good at repetitive work, often with the highest pace and quality among my siblings so that I could earn a few more cents for my pocket money. This time my speed was driven not by incentive but by fear.

That night I went to check the balcony a few times just in case there was any chokage.


At the post office

The next day factory work was finally done. But I need help to transport all the packages to the nearest post office. My elder daughter said she would stay home to take care of her younger sister who was having friends over for a school holiday playdate. Since our domestic helper had the strongest build, she should go with me.

I thought a domestic helper was not supposed to work outside the employer’s home. Anyway, I could rebandage my ankle so it looked like she was just helping her injured ma’am.

There were too many boxes. We had to make three trips from the carpark to the post office. Due to social distancing, the post office could only admit eight customers at any one time. The rest had to queue outside. We had to queue two out of three occasions to transport the boxes to the counter.

It took time to unbox and stick the stamp labels on all the packages. I still recalled for my shipment of pre-orders for my first book in 2014, the SingPost staff assigned me a desk and a chair to do the job for two separate trips on two consecutive days. Some SingPost customers thought I was the reception desk and asked me different postage questions. When they found out I was just fulfilling my online orders, they asked me different eCommerce questions instead.

Under the Covid-19 preventive measures, there was no seat in the post office. Luckily, a Chinese auntie working for SingPost helped us to do the label sticking job together whenever there was no customer in the queue.

“What are inside the envelopes?”

“Books people ordered online.”

“Why did people order so many books?”

“Because it’s safer to stay home reading than going outside or going for vacations.”

“Why is your helper so slow? Sticking stamp labels is so easy.”

“Because she is a perfectionist. It is easy for you because you do this every day.”

“No, I don’t do this every day. I see that you have many packages that’s why I am helping you.”


Books delivered by hand

I kept a handful of orders with delivery addresses close to my house. For one thing, it was faster to pass to these neighbors personally than to send to the post office and wait for the postman to deliver. Moreover, this was a good chance to check out on people ordering my book. In my Youtube videos, they could see different corners of my house. Now it’s my turn to get a glimpse of their home.

I knew exactly what to do: Press the doorbell or knock at the door. When the door opens, read aloud the name of the recipient before handing over the package. It will be fun!

The first one I went for home delivery was a buyer staying in the same landed housing estate as me. I went there early in the morning when people were getting ready for work. The gate was open. When I pressed the doorbell, instead of the buyer, a big dog appeared and barked at me.

After the incident, I decided to deliver only to nearby HDB blocks because HDB homeowners are only allowed to keep dogs up to 55 cm tall.

The last home delivery was 4 minutes’ drive from my home. After I passed the package to the buyer, he suddenly asked, “Are you Vina Ip?”

I dressed like a deliveryman, with no make-up but a mask on, how could he possibly recognize me? He said he had seen me jogging nearby. He asked for a handshake before I left. That’s when I realized I should have added the payment option of “cash upon delivery” so there would be a few extra dollars for tips on top of a handshake.

On a more serious note, I am thinking of setting up a platform for readers to comment on the new book, ask me questions about the content, share their own thoughts or exchange ideas with fellow readers. It can be in the form of a discussion forum or a facebook group. I will add those who have ordered the paperback or ebook to the newly created online platform. Readers who buy the book at bookstores later can join us too with their proof of purchase.

Dear readers, please take the quick poll below and let me know your preference. Talk to you soon!

If you need advice on property matters or residential properties in Singapore, you can check out my personal consultation service.

My new book Behind The Scenes of The Property Market is now available for preview and order online. You can also check out my online courses.