Behind the book: My journey working on a retirement investing bestseller

This is the story behind the story of "IRA Wealth: Revolutionary IRA Strategies for Real Estate Investment" by Patrick W. Rice and Jennifer D. Meacham (then Dirks). Thank you so much to Gather member Kevin V. for my inspiration in laying out the details, to Patrick Rice and Square One Publishers for believing in me enough to get into a contract together, and Wall Street Journal, Miami Herald, Forbes Book Club, The Oregonian, San Francisco Chronicle, AARP the magazine, Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal and others for understanding the groundbreaking nature of this book's content -- and covering it. 

Short summary: IRA Wealth is all about taking charge of your tax-deferred or tax-exempt retirement plan and making investments which will insure that you spend your retirement years not counting pennies, but counting memories. This book will show you how to truly diversify your portfolio—and how to secure it at the same time. When people talk about diverse portfolios, all they’re usually talking about is stock. What this book uncovers is the real way to diversify and shield your assets from dips in any market.   

Excerpt (from the first paragraph of Part One): “Congratulations! You have decided to take control of your future – to build IRA wealth and security through self-directed investments. Part One will show you just what it takes to get started. In the following chapters, you will read the real-life adventures of seafarer Captain Miles. You will learn of his retirement goals, of the strategies he used to reach his goals, and of the crew members who helped him along the way. Captain Miles is not a fictional character. He exists, and he made his retirement dreams a reality by using the tactics presented in this book. You can, too.”

Inspiration for the book: I had been an editor at the Vancouver Business Journal for several years at the time, and Patrick Rice – a local banker turned real estate broker – was one of the journal’s columnists. He wrote one article on real estate investing inside an IRA that really piqued my interest. I went through it with a fine-toothed editing comb and sent it back to him for his changes. Thankfully, he loved the suggestions and later told me it was the best article he felt like he had ever written. That cemented our working relationship. When I became a full-time freelancer, he was one of the first people I called with the news. The first thing out of his mouth? “Let’s get together for lunch. Maybe we can do a book together.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Trials and successes in getting it published: If memory serves, we initially approached about 20 publishers with a one-page query, and had follow-up requests for more from four. I sent standard package to those four – the synopsis, analysis of competing books, author bios, one to three sample chapters – and heard nothing. The problem was that people just hadn’t heard of this concept yet, and so even CPAs, estate planners and tax attorneys thought it couldn’t be done. Rather than get discouraged, I researched 19 more publishers (of which my favorite was Square One Publishers in New York) and sent off queries to each of them. Square One bit, so I sent off the first chapter for the publisher’s review. After several rewrites and a ready by Square One's in-house counsel, he signed off on the chapter that now is published in “IRA Wealth.” Then it was on to chapter two. Once those two were completed, we had a signed publishing contract in hand and a plan to get the entire book written, published and into bookstore shelves within the next year.

Deciding where and how to publish: I really wanted to work with Square One for a number of reasons. First, it had just launched a line of real estate books, with only one title so far published. That’s excellent news for the person that authors book No. 2. (I knew this because I had just read a book on publishing that said that publishers launching a new division put a lot of marketing efforts behind their first two books in order to establish a strong reputation to help sell later books down the line.) Second, Square One specializes in what’s known as mid-list or back-list books. These are books that aren’t necessarily best-sellers off the bat, but that are continually marketed, stocked and restocked for sometimes decades after their initial first run. Most books get a three-month run on bookstore shelves, which enables only a three-month window for attracting a bookstore audience. “IRA Wealth,” on the other hand, continues to sell more copies every month – still fresh three-plus years after its first run date. 

Cover art, or other illustrations: The publisher wanted all of his book covers to be consistent, so this cover was done by his design staff. There initially was a photo of a family in front of a home in the lower right hand corner, so I mentioned to the publisher that I thought this should be changed so as not to make it appear like it was a family photo of Patrick Rice and me with our kid (a bit scandalous, considering we were both married to other people). I was thinking the new photo would be a “sold” sign or something real estate oriented. Instead, it’s a smiling couple. Go figure. People still say I “don’t look anything like the photo,” but at least I no longer have a virtual child.

Details: Signed copies of this book are available through independent bookseller Powells.com. You'll also find "IRA Wealth" on the shelves at major bookstores throughout the country and online.