It made me chuckle that trying to share the book on Amazon using the email share option on the page is blocked. I suspect due to the word Bullshit in the title
Email share just worked fine for me.
Everything Is Bullshit: A Book by Priceonomics
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Re: Everything Is Bullshit: A Book by Priceonomics
#32I'm genuinely confused about the legality about building a business whose sole purpose is to scrape the web, repackage and sell that information. One side of the fence, you have all this publicly accessible information, so it's like.. why not? Anyone can obtain it. Why should you be restricted? Then on the other side you have companies who will place all sorts of legal restrictions, TOS/EULAs, etc to prevent against…
> "I'm genuinely confused about the legality about building a business whose sole purpose is to scrape the web, repackage and sell that information"
Like Google?
Re: Everything Is Bullshit: A Book by Priceonomics
#33Just did an impulsive amazon checkout. All this frictionless online shopping is getting dangerous.
HackNews -> Amazon -> Paypal -> Gmail (confirmation) in less then 1 minute.
Re: Everything Is Bullshit: A Book by Priceonomics
#34I'm genuinely confused about the legality about building a business whose sole purpose is to scrape the web, repackage and sell that information. One side of the fence, you have all this publicly accessible information, so it's like.. why not? Anyone can obtain it. Why should you be restricted? Then on the other side you have companies who will place all sorts of legal restrictions, TOS/EULAs, etc to prevent against…
> "I'm genuinely confused about the legality about building a business whose sole purpose is to scrape the web, repackage and sell that information" Like Google?
Exactly. I am very much on the side of "If it's publicly available info, it's free to access and repackage" but a lot of companies and judges feel otherwise.
Re: Everything Is Bullshit: A Book by Priceonomics
#35It seems like the Amazon reviews might be stacked. There certainly are a ton of them popping up at 10 am this morning. Plus you can always tell a sock puppet review when they don't actually mention content and say things like "Greatest Book Evah" instead.
I know it's important to appear that the book is a proven reading experience, and reviews are the essential way to do that, but fake/paid/friend reviews just raise red flags.
I'm a huge fan of Priceonomics, and I would love to buy their book, but my concern is that a good portion of the book is repackaged articles. And anything that is a "heavily edited mashup" makes me cringe.
"Everything Is Bullshit consists of some new essays, some of our favorite older essays, and some chapters that are heavily edited mashups of various pieces we’ve written before.
If you’re a fan of our blog, we hope the new essays will be reason enough to buy the book: The Seal Clubbing Business, Why Is Art Expensive, How to Sell Nothing for $1000, The Big Lie, The World’s Most Expensive Free Credit Report, and The Food Industrial Complex.
Some of our most popular essays on diamonds, taxi medallions, academic publishing, wine, colleges, and other bullshitty things also make an appearance. Some of the essays are in a different form than when we originally published them; others look mostly the same."
So, with the sock puppet reviews, and the essays that "look mostly the same", they didn't convert me into a buyer.
My advice:
1. Sincere pre-release reviews. Praise and criticism. 2. A clear TOC with the new stories outlined (and republished ones linked to) 3. Enroll in Kindle Match. $9 an Ebook is outside the optimum pricing range for Ebooks. (2.99-4.99) 4. Use this to build the Priceonomic brand and not as a revenue structure. Price accordingly. 5. Look at your Freakonomics and Gladwell covers. I like yours, but I don't think it's the best version you could come up with. Though I recognize that good covers are hard. Very hard.
If you want my help, msg me. This, all of this, is what I do.
Re: Everything Is Bullshit: A Book by Priceonomics
#36The fake praise at the top is a great touch. All the reviews on amazon are 5 stars, too.
Stored it. http://imgur.com/NnCzDaX
Re: Everything Is Bullshit: A Book by Priceonomics
#37I guess when you can't think of a creative title, just use a profanity. I don't want my 9-year-old to be exposed to this kind of language either on the coffee table or on the tablet, so I won't be buying the book. Could you put out a PG-rated version for those of us prudish and old-fashioned types?
The horror! Someone might encounter a word!
Re: Everything Is Bullshit: A Book by Priceonomics
#38I guess when you can't think of a creative title, just use a profanity. I don't want my 9-year-old to be exposed to this kind of language either on the coffee table or on the tablet, so I won't be buying the book. Could you put out a PG-rated version for those of us prudish and old-fashioned types?
A simple solution is to not leave this book out for your 9-year-old (or realize your 9-year-old really isn't interested). You can't seriously expect them to release a PG alternative.
Re: Everything Is Bullshit: A Book by Priceonomics
#39Looks like they read their own guest posts...
The Economics of Writing a Book, by Carter Phipps http://priceonomics.com/can-authors-make-money-selling-books...
Re: Everything Is Bullshit: A Book by Priceonomics
#40It seems like the Amazon reviews might be stacked. There certainly are a ton of them popping up at 10 am this morning. Plus you can always tell a sock puppet review when they don't actually mention content and say things like "Greatest Book Evah" instead. I know it's important to appear that the book is a proven reading experience, and reviews are the essential way to do that, but fake/paid/friend reviews just raise…
Hi there, I work at Priceonomics. Thanks for the suggestions. We'll probably do a blog post about our marketing strategy of this book, but I wanted to address your point that the book had reviews as soon as it launched on Amazon. How is that even possible?
Many people had advanced copies of various drafts of the book. When the book went live this morning we emailed all of them letting them know it was up there. Hence people (all of whom are regular readers of our blog and seem to like us) could review it even though the book was only just released. Hope that clears up your questions!
BTW, do you have any data on the optimum pricing of an ebook being $2.99-4.99? I would love to see it.