Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

http://planscope.io/blog/selling-2000-worth-of-my-unfinished-book/

by bdunn • 14 years ago

77 92 14 years ago

brackin• 14 years ago

Impressive stuff, although the book promotion page looks slightly off. Reminds me of those 'free make money' ebook pop-up's I got in 2005.

bdunn12• 14 years ago

I'll followup with a post on why I used the sales letter format to sell the book, but I can tell you this: it converts 3x better than the alternatives I tried.

sdoering• 14 years ago

We had a similar situation with an inhouse-ad on our site. The polished version performed ok, but just for the fun of testing, we switched to a rough screenshot image. It performed more than five times as good.

Just because one doesn't like it, doesn't mean it won't work. My learning was: Always, test everything.

grueful• 14 years ago

I've heard this same result regarding business ebook sales at least half a dozen times. There's a sentiment in tech culture to the effect that we are free thinkers who should be dismissive of obvious sales tactics. But maybe the sales guys use them because they're statistically effective.

"Test everything" includes "test the options you're dismissive of, just in case not everyone thinks like you."

lifeisstillgood• 14 years ago

Well I am sold - but I cannot pay outside the US it seems (unless I make up a zip code)

Edit: You have my hard-earned now, after I saw the "which country are you in" - that was embarrassing, but in my defence its a terrible interface.

alanmackenzie2• 14 years ago

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?

bdunn12• 14 years ago

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.

alanmackenzie2• 14 years ago

Challenge accepted, thanks for the answers.

lutusp25• 14 years ago

> 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. Let's also say that 80% of your book's readers do increase their client base as you claim.

3. The problem is that the remaining 20% can take you at your word, demand a refund, explain that the book was lost in a fire, and succeed in wiping out your profit.

4. Worse, someone might say your claim moved your book from the category of an ordinary caveat-emptor purchase, to a guarantee of success, and demand consequential damages. Very bad, and you made it possible.

It works like this: Because of the First Amendment, an author can say virtually anything in a book -- anything. But when you make a claim about a book's contents to motivate sales, you short-circuit First Amendment protections -- you turn your book from a freely expressed opinion, to a method with a guaranteed outcome. Very bad idea.

> Paying for stuff that doesn't deliver value is dumb.

Not as dumb as making an unnecessary claim that has a potentially disastrous outcome.

Just my opinion, expressed in words, with no guarantees.

lutusp25• 14 years ago

> 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.

kayoone• 14 years ago

This post is great marketing for mentioned unfinished book. The HN frontpage is probably the perfect target audience, well put!

bdunn12• 14 years ago

But by far the lowest converting traffic source :-) Thanks!

thibaut_barrere5• 14 years ago

It's definitely a low converting traffic source, but then it brings an interesting coverage/publicity, tends to generate retweets etc (based on my experience on http://hackerbooks.com/).

thibaut_barrere5• 14 years ago

"Money – cold, hard cash – on the other hand. That’s the ultimate form of validation."

This is priceless especially considering how much effort goes into writing a book or creating a SaaS product.

manmal4• 14 years ago

How do you actually contact people to ask for this? Emailing people? Or making a signup page and see who clicks on the (faux) "buy" button?

thibaut_barrere5• 14 years ago

For my coming SaaS product (https://www.wisecashhq.com), I created a signup page back in september 2011, then tweeted regularly when I worked on it and mentioned it around (shipping end of september 2012).

It gradually got around 200 "pre-signups", and I used the list to contact people as well and verify my assumptions.

I will write a blog post about that soon!

tnorthcutt• 14 years ago

Brennan made a signup page, and let people click on the real buy button. That's what he's saying - true validation is when people will pay for it before it's even available.

rgraham• 14 years ago

For my book (see profile) I developed the idea because my posts about cold calling for entrepreneurs became so popular.

After that, I just started collecting emails, asking the list members qualitative questions, and honing copy by testing.

If you started with an idea for a book and no audience demanding it, you should really execute the whole custdev process in one form or another to verify demand. Pre-sales is a great avenue for that.

manmal4• 14 years ago

I am one of those 57 buyers.. I stumbled across the book after having seen the link in another article that was on HN. HN is the right audience for this book indeed :)

bdunn12• 14 years ago

Thanks! Looking forward to your review.

danso• 14 years ago

Great post...it also introduced me to this book, Exceptional Ruby: http://exceptionalruby.com/ Buying it right now.

xyzzyb• 14 years ago

Exceptional Ruby is indeed fantastic. If you like it, you may be interested in Avdi's current book project "Confident Ruby": http://devblog.avdi.org/2012/06/05/confident-ruby-beta/

Sodaware• 14 years ago

The lesson here: The best way to sell stuff is by selling stuff.

Look at what's involved:

* Guest posts / articles to become known as an expert

* Emailing a list of interested parties

* AdWords, preferably in a campaign that can scale

* Twitter and other social media

Learning to write good copy, or finding someone to do it for you, will have an impact on your business. I still get a trickle of traffic (that converts well) from an article I wrote over 6 years ago. I'd much rather spend time adding "one more feature", but a few hours spent writing quality content will have a much larger impact on the bottom line.

K2h• 14 years ago

That looks interesting enough that I sent a link to a friend. Sometimes making to HN front page does pay.

update: She bought it last week.

lutusp25• 14 years ago

I hate to sound old-fashioned, but this puts the cart before the horse. Authors should have a book available for sale before accepting delivery payments. Ask any publisher how this sort of thing usually works out.

ky34• 14 years ago

It's not a bug, it's a feature!

The reader gets involved in the making of the book, the writer gets a way to talk with their best customers, everyone wins.

A savvy author trumps a crappy publisher any time.

lutusp25• 14 years ago

> The reader gets involved in the making of the book, the writer gets a way to talk with their best customers, everyone wins.

Not disparaging this specific author or publisher, but this was once accomplished by having advance reviewers offer their criticisms without any money changing hands.

> A savvy author trumps a crappy publisher any time.

Yes, but not the reverse. :)

bdunn12• 14 years ago

From my perspective, there's nothing more motivating than having people chomping at the bit to get their hands on your book. The end product is arguably better because it's not being written in a vacuum and is bolstered by a ton of support.

lutusp25• 14 years ago

Yes, but that end can be accomplished through pre-publication excerpts and interviews, not by accepting payments for a book not yet written. The former increases public enthusiasm for a book, the latter doesn't. Reasonable people may differ.

dchurchv4• 14 years ago

Not sure I follow this. Pre-ordering books is a pretty well established practice among publishers (yes, real ones, not just ebook authors).

Actually, it's the primary hack for getting on best-seller lists (pre-orders, then fulfillment in strategic batches designed to show consistent sales over time).

Or is this a more basic "No one should sell anything that doesn't already exist" argument?

If so, I'd point out concert tickets (usually 6 months advance sale), seminars, conferences, and most other large undertakings that need some sort of validated audience numbers as counter-evidence.

Why not all products, as long as there's no attempt to deceive, and the purchaser is clear that the product is not ready yet?

lutusp25• 14 years ago

> Not sure I follow this. Pre-ordering books is a pretty well established practice among publishers ...

The difference is the person pre-ordering can back out, and generally speaking in pre-orders, no payment is made until delivery. It ends up being a measure of public enthusiasm, not a way to gather revenues in advance of delivery. In this case, people are paying for a book that doesn't exist yet.

> Actually, it's the primary hack for getting on best-seller lists

Yes, true, but see the pre-order discussion above -- generally, no money changes hands until the book is actually available.

Also, I have to add, the ultimate best-seller-list hack is to buy copies of your own book and put the copies back into the pipeline, endlessly, as the Scientologists are said to do.

> Or is this a more basic "No one should sell anything that doesn't already exist" argument?

But that's true in general -- in the worst cases, where delivery doesn't happen, the seller can be charged with fraud. I hasten to add I am not comparing this hypothetical (but all too common) outcome with the book under discussion, which for all I know is perfectly worthwhile.

rprasad• 14 years ago

He's basically asking for an advance directly from his readers. The flipside, of course, is that he must also return this "advance" if no book is made available.

bdunn12• 14 years ago

Exactly. PayPal would also step in and refund if I flaked out on my side of the deal.

It goes without saying, I'm pretty certain I'm going to make a LOT more money in sales once the book is ready (immediate gratification). So it's in my best interest to get this out the door soon.

rglover• 14 years ago

I've really enjoyed the build up to the book. I haven't pre-ordered yet (mainly because I wanted to see how serious the author was), but Brendan has been on top of his game. I've received maybe 2-3 emails, each containing great little bits of information sharing info that (I imagine) will be further articulated in the book. The best part: it's hyper-relevant. I'm coming up with strategies for my design business and Brendan's insight has already influenced some early direction.

Give this dude your money (I'm about to), he's doing it right.

bdunn12• 14 years ago

Thank you, sir! Looking forward to hearing your review - and most importantly, how effective it was helping raise your rates for all the right reasons.

beaker• 14 years ago

The copy on this article and the book page itself feels so spammy that I would never buy the product. I respect the desire/need to make money, but I do think a certain percentage of your potential audience will be turned off immediately by the excessive use of this type of obvious marketing-speak (excessive use of bold fonts, short, pointed sentences, all the vague truisms, "money back guarantee"..). I hope this doesn't become the standard type of post on Hacker News, I'm sorry but after clicking on that link it really feels like I've just been spammed.

dchuk• 14 years ago

take off the tinfoil hat, there's a reason you see that kind of copywriting and styling a lot...it works, and it works very well.

So long as the product being sold is legitimate, usage of that styling and copy is more than acceptable as it's a proven way to increase sales and conversions.

Marketing != Evil

bdunn12• 14 years ago

Thanks for the comment, and I used to agree with just about everything you said.

However, there's nothing at all wrong with "marketing-speak". It's based on psychology: people skim, bolding is used to emphasize importance, and money back guarantees - well, they're exactly what they mean.

For most things, I personally prefer easily digestible content over blocks and blocks of text.

shredfvz2• 14 years ago

So instead of arguing ... what % of HNers are actually clicking through to your "no bullshit" offer?

Very few articles on the front page of HN are littered with testimonials and sales copy.

Selling $2,000+ Worth Of My Unfinished Book

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