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Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

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Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#71
post #68
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You believe something about people's behavior which is a testable proposition about the nature of material reality, like "If you push an apple off a table it will accelerate to the nearest cat." The scientific method exists. Have no worries, your apples and profits are both safe, because both those theories are absolutely false .

Interesting that you would mention the scientific method, then offer no evidence for your theory. I said what I did because I have seen it happen countless times in a long career that has included a lot of writing. I have the evidence. When someone makes a performance claim about the contents of a book, the book then becomes nearly irrelevant to the outcome, which hinges on the claim.

Money-back guarantees virtually invariably raise sales in A/B tests. I have never seen one decreases sales in a statistically significant fashion. I have never seen a guarantee meaningfully increase refund rates. (No customer of mine has refund rates worth mentioning. I will literally mail paper checks to people who bought my software five years ago and my refund rate is below ~2%.) If you have data to the contrary, I bow to the data.

As it happens, I have a product launch coming up. I will offer a money back guarantee, and I will do it in an A/B test. If I am wrong, and the guarantee statistically significantly decreases sales, I will a) have a cow and b) donate a cow to charity. If I am right, you don't have to do anything, because being consistently right at this sort of prediction makes propositional bets with authors a distinctly inferior way to increase one's income versus just being consistently right at this sort of thing.

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#72
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you've offered a results-guaranteed return policy for your book, and you had a bad experience? I'd love to hear more.

No, my reply to you wasn't about claims made in a book, only to say that I had some experience with publishing.

I see. So where do your very strong assertions about the folly of money-back guarantees come from? Data? Experience? Do you have friends who've done it?

I ask because I have lots of experience with it -- with 4 products offering total money-back guarantees -- and have insight into more than 10 friends' businesses with similar guarantees, and not a single one of us have had experience with refund abuse like you describe. Nor is it ever mentioned as an issue among the larger communities which offer that type of product for sale.

As patio11 said, your statements are testable, and if you test them, you will find them false.

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#73
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"This is not the norm in publishing, at least, the desirable kind." Ah, it's good you said that. I always thought publishers like O'Reilly and Pragmatic Programmers were totally undesirable. Now I can point out why. "In modern publishing, there's no need -- books are printed, one copy at a time, when they are ordered." Cite?

>> "In modern publishing, there's no need -- books are printed, one copy at a time, when they are ordered." > Cite? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Print_on_demand

I think we all know what Print on Demand is, but that Wikipedia page doesn't list any proof for your assertion that it is "the coming thing." The only publishers it lists as offering POD are specialty POD publishers.

That's hardly the sweeping industry change you described.

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#74
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, my reply to you wasn't about claims made in a book, only to say that I had some experience with publishing.

I see. So where do your very strong assertions about the folly of money-back guarantees come from? Data? Experience? Do you have friends who've done it? I ask because I have lots of experience with it -- with 4 products offering total money-back guarantees -- and have insight into more than 10 friends' businesses with similar guarantees, and not a single one of us have had experience with refund abuse like you descri…

> So where do your very strong assertions about the folly of money-back guarantees come from?

What assertion was that? I never said what you claim. I invite you to locate me decrying "the folly of money-back guarantees", anywhere.

Try to read more carefully, before objecting to something no one said.

> your statements are testable, and if you test them, you will find them false.

Great -- you invent something I never said, then try to hold me responsible for it. Definitely science in action.

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#75
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "In modern publishing, there's no need -- books are printed, one copy at a time, when they are ordered." > Cite? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Print_on_demand

I think we all know what Print on Demand is, but that Wikipedia page doesn't list any proof for your assertion that it is "the coming thing." The only publishers it lists as offering POD are specialty POD publishers. That's hardly the sweeping industry change you described.

Your objection is that there is little evidence in the present for an assertion about the future -- the "coming thing". Knock yourself out.

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#76
post #71
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that you would mention the scientific method, then offer no evidence for your theory. I said what I did because I have seen it happen countless times in a long career that has included a lot of writing. I have the evidence. When someone makes a performance claim about the contents of a book, the book then becomes nearly irrelevant to the outcome, which hinges on the claim.

Money-back guarantees virtually invariably raise sales in A/B tests. I have never seen one decreases sales in a statistically significant fashion. I have never seen a guarantee meaningfully increase refund rates. (No customer of mine has refund rates worth mentioning. I will literally mail paper checks to people who bought my software five years ago and my refund rate is below ~2%.) If you have data to the contrary,…

>> When someone makes a performance claim about the contents of a book ...

> Money-back guarantees virtually invariably raise sales ...

It would be nice if we both were discussing the same topic. A performance claim is not a money-back guarantee.

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#77
post #29
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what we have done either (but with an Adwords campaign, to see how much traffic there is to be had from Google), but I think that's no commitment to cash, just "I'm interested". I once read here on HN that bootstrappers should actually ask people whether they would pay X$ for that - but now being in this situation, I wonder how to actually do that, knowing none of the future audience in person.

> knowing none of the future audience in person I'd seriously think about that 30x500 course if I were you. (Thibault is alum.) The biggest chunk of the course is devoted to making sure there's a "commitment to cash" BEFORE spending a dime. And that includes $$$ adwords.

For our product, we know that there is commitment to cash for this category of products, because there are other products in that area which do well as far as we know. What we don't know is whether people pay $X for exactly our product. We have pondered a lot over the free 30x500 course materials, but haven't got around to join the course. We did not spend much on Adwords (So, yes, we thought we could validate the idea with an Ad campaign, but we did not do it right, I think. We did not measure anything significant at all, and what we did is gather an "I'm interested" list. You are right that perhaps the best ways to validate a product is to ask real people - like asking quite bluntly "Would you pay $30 per month for this product, with this certain USP?", or even "Would you pay me $100 upfront to build this product?". That takes a lot more guts than just setting up a landing page and an adwords campaign, but I see that we should do it.

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#78
post #54
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Take a screenshot of this comment as witness, but I'm serious about refunding anyone who ends up not being able to raise their client rates. Some advice -- you really, really don't want to do this. You don't need to guarantee results to sell a worthwhile book, and IMHO you shouldn't. Here's why: 1. Let's say you have a profit margin of 20% on your book overall -- printing costs, promotion, etc. versus income. 2. Le…

You believe something about people's behavior which is a testable proposition about the nature of material reality, like "If you push an apple off a table it will accelerate to the nearest cat." The scientific method exists. Have no worries, your apples and profits are both safe, because both those theories are absolutely false .

> both those theories are absolutely false.

Here is a quotation from a page the cites the constitutional law on this issue:

URL: http://nationalparalegal.edu/conlawcrimproc_public/FreedomOf...

Quote: "Commercial speech holds a special place in First Amendment analysis. It is not an unprotected category of speech, nor is it afforded the same level of protection as non-commercial speech. In addition, there are sub-categories within commercial speech. Truthful commercial speech is afforded protection while false or deceptive commercial speech is not protected."

Here is another account that makes the same point:

URL: http://www.wisbar.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=News&Templ...

Quote: "In 2004, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned Kevin Trudeau from appearing in any infomercial promoting any product except publications, which are protected by the First Amendment, provided he did not misrepresent the content of the publication."

What these rulings mean is that the contents of a book are protected by the First Amendment, but promotional claims about the book are not.

Sound familiar?

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#79
post #65
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Take a screenshot of this comment as witness, but I'm serious about refunding anyone who ends up not being able to raise their client rates. Some advice -- you really, really don't want to do this. You don't need to guarantee results to sell a worthwhile book, and IMHO you shouldn't. Here's why: 1. Let's say you have a profit margin of 20% on your book overall -- printing costs, promotion, etc. versus income. 2. Le…

You're #4 seems legally dubious at best. I can't imagine any court in the land upholding the idea that purchasing any education material with an implied promise of results grants the purchaser 'consequential damages'. An easy smell test for this idea is the "get rich quick in real estate" infomercial.

> An easy smell test for this idea is the "get rich quick in real estate" infomercial.

Yes -- and here is the law on that issue:

URL: http://nationalparalegal.edu/conlawcrimproc_public/FreedomOf...

Quote: "Commercial speech holds a special place in First Amendment analysis. It is not an unprotected category of speech, nor is it afforded the same level of protection as non-commercial speech. In addition, there are sub-categories within commercial speech. Truthful commercial speech is afforded protection while false or deceptive commercial speech is not protected."

Here is another account that makes the same point:

URL: http://www.wisbar.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=News&Templ...

Quote: "In 2004, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned Kevin Trudeau from appearing in any infomercial promoting any product except publications, which are protected by the First Amendment, provided he did not misrepresent the content of the publication."

What these rulings mean is that the contents of a book are protected by the First Amendment, but promotional claims about the book are not.

Re: Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

#80
post #6

I would quite happily preorder a copy of your book but there's not enough information to feel comfortable about parting with $39. Is this an ebook or in dead tree format? Do you ship internationally?

It's an ebook with worksheets and additional case studies / interviews from freelancers who charge a lot (most notably: Amy Hoy and Thomas Fuchs). Take a screenshot of this comment as witness, but I'm serious about refunding anyone who ends up not being able to raise their client rates. Paying for stuff that doesn't deliver value is dumb.

> I'm serious about refunding anyone who ends up not being able to raise their client rates.

Since someone who doesn't understand constitutional law downvoted my original post, I want to try again to make you aware of something. Here is a quotation from a page the cites the constitutional law on the issue of performance claims:

URL: http://nationalparalegal.edu/conlawcrimproc_public/FreedomOf...

Quote: "Commercial speech holds a special place in First Amendment analysis. It is not an unprotected category of speech, nor is it afforded the same level of protection as non-commercial speech. In addition, there are sub-categories within commercial speech. Truthful commercial speech is afforded protection while false or deceptive commercial speech is not protected." (Emphasis added.)

Here is another account that makes the same point:

URL: http://www.wisbar.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=News&Templ...

Quote: "In 2004, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned Kevin Trudeau from appearing in any infomercial promoting any product except publications, which are protected by the First Amendment, provided he did not misrepresent the content of the publication."

What these rulings mean is that the contents of a book are protected by the First Amendment, but promotional claims about the book are not.

Also, saying "If you aren't happy with my book, I will refund your money" isn't a claim about the book's contents. Saying "I'm serious about refunding anyone who ends up not being able to raise their client rates" is a claim about the book's contents, and its effect. The second is a problem, the first isn't.

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