51–60 of 70 posts
Interesting set of ideas, thanks for the link! I hadn't actually heard of the book before, but I'm intrigued. Maybe they should include a last step of "post about book in popular geek hangouts". I'd also be curious how many sales were generated after the blog post, if they'd consider revealing that data. Also, "Help Me Promote My Book And Get 50% on Each Sale" Now THAT'S a good way to sell a book. Hooray pyramid sche…
2. Can you show me your landing page for the initial adwords exploration campaign? How much was your CPC? How much did you bid? What was your quality score? (Thank you SO much)
How much time did it actually take you to write the book?
Writing took about 2 months IIRC. But the learning took >1 year :p
Interesting set of ideas, thanks for the link! I hadn't actually heard of the book before, but I'm intrigued. Maybe they should include a last step of "post about book in popular geek hangouts". I'd also be curious how many sales were generated after the blog post, if they'd consider revealing that data. Also, "Help Me Promote My Book And Get 50% on Each Sale" Now THAT'S a good way to sell a book. Hooray pyramid sche…
That's not a pyramid scheme.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
yeah. uh, so far I've made less than that on the book of xen[1] and the publisher has said that it is selling 'surprisingly well' - he (my publisher) warned me going in that writing technical books doesn't pay as well as most things a qualified person can do. But then, I get a real kick when I walk into Fry's and see my book. [1] http://nostarch.com/xen.htm
I dream of being a published author one day and walking into a book store and secretly signing my books :) I have heard that technical books don't sell well, but then again, this author is not very well known and her books don't sell well either. She said that every agent and publisher takes on new authors hoping they become the next William Gibson (or other huge name). Most authors barely survive off of writing.
From my experience, I'd be hard-pressed to be convinced to do it again. I got a few thousand as an advance for writing three of the books ten chapters and it involved research, a plan, fleshing out the content, providing supplementary assets and then a couple of rounds of editing. I've done better out of non-spammy MFA sites in terms of return on time invested.
Cool tips. I especially like the part about testing the market before actually doing the work. Clever.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Writing took about 2 months IIRC. But the learning took >1 year :p
2 months of work for $6000? While making money probably wasn't the only reason for doing it, isn't that a pretty bad payoff? I know you will keep making sales, but (especially for technical writing) it will have a short shelf life...
Other books in this field are still available at my local mass market bookstore after 15-20, even 30 years in print.
Look at TAOCP how old is that now? Like 40 years?
> “ The book I want to read. ” — Matz, creator of the Ruby language The amazing review / testimonial the author probably was able to ask for because he's credible and an active member of the Ruby ecosystem (tinyrb). Another lesson on the value of real working relationships.
I'm glad the site links to the source, though. I like easy to verify testimonials.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Writing took about 2 months IIRC. But the learning took >1 year :p
2 months of work for $6000? While making money probably wasn't the only reason for doing it, isn't that a pretty bad payoff? I know you will keep making sales, but (especially for technical writing) it will have a short shelf life...