He's an interesting character and quite jovial in person.
But your numbers are off when it comes to the books. He's sold about 60,000 in total and he self published them. That's quite a feat in Canada and shows that he's an excellent marketer. It also means that instead of earning a buck or two per book he nabs a good deal more. The total earnings on the books are north of $200k.
He also happens to be a little controversial.
Rather importantly, it's not entirely clear how he got his original 'FU' money. He did take a big leveraged position on Altria when it was in the dumps in the mid-90s where much of the portfolio is thought to come from. However, that wasn't mentioned in his books (IIRC) and is a fair bit different from the slow accumulation of dividend stocks.
The contradiction between what his books say and how he apparently got his retirement money drives some folks around the bend.
For more, see the following threads on other forums ...
http://www.financialwebring.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=100517
and a whole bunch at CB http://forums.canadianbusiness.com/forum.jspa?forumID=22 where Derek appears from time to time.
He has something of a anti-fan base ...
http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2009/03/15/selling-puts-isn%e2%80%99t-money-for-nothing
http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2009/03/17/bear-market-valuation-indicators
http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2009/03/18/what-went-wrong-with-the-derek-foster-strategy
I could go on. ;)