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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 y

by rohin 12y ago

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.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
patcon 12y ago
Thanks. I was assuming some fake reviews were a ironic piece of guerilla marketing :)
- alttab 12y ago
  I can't imagine that condoning astroturfing would be good for business, either as a retailer (Amazon) or a book author.
  - beamatronic 12y ago
    Unless it's a case study for their NEXT essay
steveklabnik 12y ago
> BTW, do you have any data on the optimum pricing of an ebook being $2.99-4.99? I smell a new post!!!
parasitius 12y ago
I cannot believe that it's still friggin necessary to explain this simple fact that some people have an advanced copy of a book and so are able to put up a review right away. And what's even worse is if you have to explain this to a technical person... Jesus Thanks so much BRILLIANT GUY for enlightening us to your brilliant review fraud theory. We are all more retarded now.
ChuckFrank 12y ago
Ah, yes, the amazon page went live this morning. That makes sense. You may have wanted to curate, or to pull out some specific talking points for your reviewers. I think good good reviews are better than bad good reviews. But I understand the challenge. As to the pricing info. I like this post, though it's old and prices may have changed -- http://evilgeniuschronicles.org/2011/01/12/ebook-pricing-vs-revenue/ http://evilgeniuschronicles.org/2011/01/12/ebook-pricing-vs-... Here are some more current discussions. http://gigaom.com/2013/05/09/whats-the-best-price-for-a-self-published-ebook-3-99-smashwords-research-suggests/ http://gigaom.com/2013/05/09/whats-the-best-price-for-a-self... http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-can-the-average-writer-make-money-self-publishing-e-books http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-can-the-avera... (see pricing barometer above) http://boingboing.net/2014/01/16/whats-the-most-profitable-pr.html http://boingboing.net/2014/01/16/whats-the-most-profitable-p... https://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120728/19122219866/traditional-publisher-ebook-pricing-harming-authors-careers.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120728/... At 266 pages, I think you $16.95 book price is perfect. You might have even been able to push it up to $18.95 because of your brand. But being conservative, I think $6 a copy profit is good. I would have priced the Ebook at $5.95, and I would've signed up for the free matchbook service, so when you buy the book you get the ebook for free. I'd drop the DRM too. But these reviews are just stinkers: "I was taught to question everything when I was in school and have practiced that ever since. Everything Is Bulls* is a fine example of that. Love it!" & "Love it! Rohin and the guys really put together a fantastic book. They did a great job using stories to explain the concepts. Very engaging - I highly recommend!" Because, you don't actually use 'stories' to explain concepts. You use data. And his 'questioning everything' isn't really the gist of your work. You don't question everything, you examine some things in great detail. Still, congratulations. I think that your marketing/content/service structure is really the future. Instead of you wanting to be bigger than the NYT, I could see the NYT following your model - if they could build a service structure that isolates it from the content structure. Who knows. Even Porlandia wadded in on the topic. http://www.newscastic.com/news/did-portlandia-show-us-the-future-of-journalism-62509/ http://www.newscastic.com/news/did-portlandia-show-us-the-fu... *Note -- Charlize Theron NSFW (not actually it's part of the joke)
- jonnathanson 12y ago
ekianjo 12y ago
> Many people had advanced copies of various drafts of the book Seems like you cherry-picked who got the advanced copies...

by rohin 12y ago

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

patcon 12y ago

Thanks. I was assuming some fake reviews were a ironic piece of guerilla marketing :)

alttab 12y ago
I can't imagine that condoning astroturfing would be good for business, either as a retailer (Amazon) or a book author.
- beamatronic 12y ago
  Unless it's a case study for their NEXT essay

steveklabnik 12y ago

> BTW, do you have any data on the optimum pricing of an ebook being $2.99-4.99? I smell a new post!!!

parasitius 12y ago

I cannot believe that it's still friggin necessary to explain this simple fact that some people have an advanced copy of a book and so are able to put up a review right away. And what's even worse is if you have to explain this to a technical person... Jesus Thanks so much BRILLIANT GUY for enlightening us to your brilliant review fraud theory. We are all more retarded now.

ChuckFrank 12y ago

Ah, yes, the amazon page went live this morning. That makes sense. You may have wanted to curate, or to pull out some specific talking points for your reviewers. I think good good reviews are better than bad good reviews. But I understand the challenge. As to the pricing info. I like this post, though it's old and prices may have changed -- http://evilgeniuschronicles.org/2011/01/12/ebook-pricing-vs-revenue/ http://evilgeniuschronicles.org/2011/01/12/ebook-pricing-vs-... Here are some more current discussions. http://gigaom.com/2013/05/09/whats-the-best-price-for-a-self-published-ebook-3-99-smashwords-research-suggests/ http://gigaom.com/2013/05/09/whats-the-best-price-for-a-self... http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-can-the-average-writer-make-money-self-publishing-e-books http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-can-the-avera... (see pricing barometer above) http://boingboing.net/2014/01/16/whats-the-most-profitable-pr.html http://boingboing.net/2014/01/16/whats-the-most-profitable-p... https://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120728/19122219866/traditional-publisher-ebook-pricing-harming-authors-careers.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120728/... At 266 pages, I think you $16.95 book price is perfect. You might have even been able to push it up to $18.95 because of your brand. But being conservative, I think $6 a copy profit is good. I would have priced the Ebook at $5.95, and I would've signed up for the free matchbook service, so when you buy the book you get the ebook for free. I'd drop the DRM too. But these reviews are just stinkers: "I was taught to question everything when I was in school and have practiced that ever since. Everything Is Bulls* is a fine example of that. Love it!" & "Love it! Rohin and the guys really put together a fantastic book. They did a great job using stories to explain the concepts. Very engaging - I highly recommend!" Because, you don't actually use 'stories' to explain concepts. You use data. And his 'questioning everything' isn't really the gist of your work. You don't question everything, you examine some things in great detail. Still, congratulations. I think that your marketing/content/service structure is really the future. Instead of you wanting to be bigger than the NYT, I could see the NYT following your model - if they could build a service structure that isolates it from the content structure. Who knows. Even Porlandia wadded in on the topic. http://www.newscastic.com/news/did-portlandia-show-us-the-future-of-journalism-62509/ http://www.newscastic.com/news/did-portlandia-show-us-the-fu... *Note -- Charlize Theron NSFW (not actually it's part of the joke)

jonnathanson 12y ago

ekianjo 12y ago

> Many people had advanced copies of various drafts of the book Seems like you cherry-picked who got the advanced copies...