I self-published a learn-to-code book and made nearly $5k in pre-orders • Hacker News Board

Re: I self-published a learn-to-code book and made nearly $5k in pre-orders

#101

Post by peterarmstrong » Wed, Jul 08, 2015, 10:54 PM UTC

bencollier49 wrote: post #54

darkmarmot wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this. Also you seem to have more erotic/unusual titles...

I think that's because vanity publishing is typically very popular amongst programming and "romance" authors.

We like to think of what we're doing as Lean Publishing (self-published in-progress ebooks), not vanity publishing. We only earn money if the author does, unlike most of the scum that prey on authors who wish to self-publish and spend thousands of dollars to get a box of books that sit in their basement.

The Leanpub workflow is totally free to use, and we're making it better all the time.

Now, frankly, I'm a programming book author myself (I've written 3 programming books) and we have tons of programming books on Leanpub -- but I really wish we had a lot more romance and other "genre" books than we currently do. I even went to Brisbane to speak at GenreCon Australia (http://www.genrecon.com.au/) in 2013 to try to jump-start this, but frankly our usability wasn't there yet. We'll get there.

Re: I self-published a learn-to-code book and made nearly $5k in pre-orders

#102

Post by sdrothrock » Thu, Jul 09, 2015, 2:59 AM UTC

limedaring wrote: post #89

sdrothrock wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oops! I hope that fixes the situation, then. I thought it was much more likely that the site had a finicky search engine than there really being only one book related to Django.

Amazon actually doesn't list me for "Django tutorial" even though both keywords are mentioned on my page. It's been driving me nuts!

It looks like Leanpub isn't doing it either -- I guess they're both prioritizing title keywords.

Maybe a subtitle would help? "Hello Web App: Making Your Own Django App" or something.

Re: I self-published a learn-to-code book and made nearly $5k in pre-orders

#103

Post by limedaring » Thu, Jul 09, 2015, 8:57 AM UTC

sdrothrock wrote: post #102

limedaring wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon actually doesn't list me for "Django tutorial" even though both keywords are mentioned on my page. It's been driving me nuts!

It looks like Leanpub isn't doing it either -- I guess they're both prioritizing title keywords. Maybe a subtitle would help? "Hello Web App: Making Your Own Django App" or something.

Yeah... but with non-programmer-y people, "Django App" is worse than "Web App." I'll have to see how things go and change it if it's worth it!

Re: I self-published a learn-to-code book and made nearly $5k in pre-orders

#104

Post by limedaring » Thu, Jul 09, 2015, 8:59 AM UTC

misslinda wrote: post #98

I must be the only one who can't load the web page. ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH A secure connection cannot be established because this site uses an unsupported protocol.

Try again now? Looks like Cloudflare was having issues for a bit.

Re: I self-published a learn-to-code book and made nearly $5k in pre-orders

#105

Post by limedaring » Thu, Jul 09, 2015, 9:00 AM UTC

yitchelle wrote: post #97

The cover design is always an interesting part of a book. Did you got through a A/B testing phase before settling on this design? Congrats on the launch!

LOL I wish. I never feel like I have time to do A/B testing. I just went with my instincts.

Re: I self-published a learn-to-code book and made nearly $5k in pre-orders

#106

Post by limedaring » Thu, Jul 09, 2015, 9:01 AM UTC

limedaring wrote: post #68

plicense wrote: post #43

You can actually add videos to your Kindle book and sell it for a higher price. Note however that the video version is supported only for Fire devices. Checkout - Kindle Textbook Creator - https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1002998671

Huh, had no idea. Thanks for the tip!

FYI I just chatted with Amazon and unfortunately I can only do one version of a Kindle book, so I'd have to get rid of my natural Kindle book in order to sell an eTextbook version with videos. They said they're looking into allowing creators to sell both though so fingers crossed that happens soon. I would love to be able to sell a version of my video package through Amazon.

Re: I self-published a learn-to-code book and made nearly $5k in pre-orders

#107

Post by limedaring » Thu, Jul 09, 2015, 4:12 PM UTC

erikano wrote: post #95

limedaring wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2015-05-04 would be the published date.

Ok, thanks :) Just to confirm, though, that's May 2015, right? (And not the 5th of April 2015.)

Yes :)

Re: I self-published a learn-to-code book and made nearly $5k in pre-orders

#108

Post by mastahype » Fri, Jul 10, 2015, 4:23 PM UTC

limedaring wrote: post #5

mastahype wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll bite. What motivated you to do this? What was the process like? Have you considered making instructional video for Udemy or other MOOCs as another resource?

I taught myself how to code about 5 years ago and while I eventually figured it out (and launched weddinglovely.com), I was really annoyed at the process and how every tutorial seemed like it assumed I came from a comp. sci. background. I decided I wanted to write a learn-to-code book aimed at people who have previous experience with front-end development and how websites work, but no programming experience. The proc…

Nice to hear yet another non-CS degree holder taking the dive (CS degree holder here). I think keeping tech books like that short is key to success. We don't have the time or attention span to pour through 300-500 page books on tech stuff. I think 140 is in the sweet spot for sure. Keep it up and get on with the videos - I hear there's money in them there hills.