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Tony Nash THE BUSINESS OF BOOKS
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EO of online bookstore Booktopia, Tony Nash, admits he was never much of a reader. It was his skills in internet marketing and a passion for meeting customer demands that drew him to the business. After a long and twisty road from recruitment into becoming an SEO expert, Tony began Booktopia as an evening side project with a budget of just $10 per day. He now has six million titles in the store. “I didn’t really know anything about books, but I was passionate about selling, customers and meeting customers demands. I could see that by focusing on what customers wanted, that’s how we could make this work,” Tony said. Like a business, a great book is similarly built on dedication, hard work and a passion for marketing to the right crowd. There are 27 million books currently in print and 4,000 new books are added to the worldwide database every day, so competition is hot. Even the seasoned experts can’t always pick a bestseller, so Tony’s advice? Laser-like focus on your desired outcome, and put in the work. Tony likens dealing with competition to running a 100 metre race. As a young decathlon athlete, his sprint coach gave him advice which resonated with everything he has done since.
“Slow up, look to your left, look to your right and see where your competitors are. If you want to go as fast as you can, you pick a point down the end of the runway and focus on that. If you want to know where the others are, build peripheral vision.” A great book doesn’t happen by magic. “There is no Harry Potter wand for success.” Once you have written your piece, it needs some serious polishing and, as Tony points out, even the best writers have an editorial team to assist.
