Miriam Sandkuhler was a first-time author who came to me for a structural edit for her book Property Prosperity.
Her book teaches readers the seven steps to investing in property like an expert. “Whether you’re looking to purchase a home or an investment property, Property Prosperity gives you all the information you need to avoid common pitfalls, make successful property buying decisions, and build a prosperous property portfolio.”
Why write a book?
Miriam is an industry award nominated Buyer Agent and Accredited Property Investment Adviser with 14 years of practical experience both buying and selling property for 100s of clients in Victoria and Western Australia.
Miriam found herself crossing paths with clients time and time again who had made poor property investment decisions, costing them tens of thousands of dollars. She realised that this was principally because of the way property is sold in Australia – as the property advice sector is unregulated, anyone without any formal qualification or minimum standard of education can call themselves a ‘Property Adviser’, leaving investors vulnerable.
She wrote her book to warn investors about the smoke and mirrors tactics that get used to lure inexperienced investors into buying poor-performing property, and to teach them the seven steps required to buy investment-grade property instead.
The editing process
When Miriam sent Property Prosperity to me for editing, it was clear that she had a lot of knowledge to share, and a lot of passion about helping investors make the right decisions.
However, her passion meant some of her content was quite lengthy, which could quickly become overwhelming for a reader who is new to the world of property investment. This meant one of the major focuses of the edit was reducing wordiness, as well as consolidating any repetitive areas.
There were also some structural issues. While her book covered a seven step process, her original Step 1 had merged two separate areas (Money Mindset and Risk Tolerance), which needed to be separate.
Additionally, the area she was most adamant about was warning readers about the unscrupulous methods some people use to sell property, and how new investors can get caught out. This chapter was a real page turner – I couldn’t put it down, and I knew her readers would feel the same way … but it was buried half way through the book. So another major change was bringing this content up to the introduction, so it would quickly grab a reader’s attention, whether they were a potential client, partner, or media opportunity.
The rewarads of getting published
After two rounds of editing and working extensively with a self-publishing company, Miriam became a published author in late 2013!
Since then, her book has given her media and partnership opportunities that would have been harder to obtain without it. She now blogs regularly for property and finance magazines, both print and online, and has done several media and radio interviews. As a result of her book, Miriam has been featured on 3AW, Domain, The Age, Australian Property Investor magazine, Property Observer online, Real Estate Talk radio, Smart Property Investment magazine, Real Estate.com.au, The New Daily, 4Bc News talk and Curtin FM radio.
And she is about to starting writing her second book – the Women’s Edition of Property Prosperity – 7 Steps to Investing Like an Expert.