Everything Is Bullshit: A Book by Priceonomics

http://priceonomics.com/everything-is-bullshit-a-book-by-priceonomics/

by hodgesmr • 12 years ago

202 96 12 years ago

its amazing to me that these guys pivoted (or at least forked) from data services to journalism, but i think they do a phenomenal job as writers. watching their path has been as confusing as its been encouraging. congratulations on your book!

bfwi• 12 years ago

Can you buy it in an ebook format other than Kindle?

aluhut• 12 years ago

You can get Calibre for free and convert it there.

dublinben• 12 years ago

Kindle ebooks have DRM and require you to buy them from Amazon. Some people prefer to avoid both when paying for books.

DanBC• 12 years ago

Criminal offence if you're stripping the DRM in the process of format shifting.

beggi• 12 years ago

I've enjoyed Priceonomics blog posts and will probably get the book. Anyone remember when this was a pricing service startup though? Did they pivot to writing?

vinceguidry• 12 years ago

Did you even read the OP? They explain it.

Kiro• 12 years ago

No, they don't. Their data crawling business is a pivot as well so it explains nothing about the former pricing service.

alexmayyasi• 12 years ago

Here's an explanation of the move to data services and writing articles and blog posts.

http://priceonomics.com/introducing-the-priceonomics-busines...

drpgq• 12 years ago

Has anyone jumped into the pricing service niche? I liked the pricing as well.

alttab3• 12 years ago

Black Locus, from Austin TX, was acquired by Home Depot for dynamic pricing [1].

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/17/home-depot-acquires-data-dr...

talles• 12 years ago

Kinda off topic, but still: anyone besides me noticed how the logo and the favicon looks a lot like PayPal's?

https://www.paypalobjects.com/webstatic/i/logo/rebrand/ppcom...

http://priceonomics.com/static/images/logo/front.png

alaskamiller• 12 years ago

Pricenomics actually has the same aesthetics as the city parking signs in San Francisco.

roma1n2• 12 years ago

Just curious -- how much of the book is based on blog content and how much is new?

kqr2• 12 years ago

  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.

roma1n2• 12 years ago

Great -- ordered!

discodave• 12 years ago

I think this book should get some kind of Godwin award for mentioning hitler in the fourth paragraph.

devindotcom• 12 years ago

You may be surprised to hear that there are books that mention Hitler in the first paragraph — in fact, some concern themselves with him exclusively!

jonnathanson2• 12 years ago

In fact, Hitler even beat out Jesus for total references for a good stretch of the mid-20th Century. For a long time, he was also stealing Christmas. But we're happy to note that Christmas overtook Hitler in the 1980s, and has narrowly edged him out ever since.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Hitler%2CJesus...

SonOfLilit• 12 years ago

I think there's an exemption to Godwin's Law for writing about Nazi Germany.

lightyrs• 12 years ago

Novick's Law: Nobody understands Godwin's law.

ebspelman• 12 years ago

Go Priceonomics! I really enjoy their approach to journalism.

pgrote• 12 years ago

The fake praise at the top is a great touch. All the reviews on amazon are 5 stars, too.

atwebb2• 12 years ago

For anyone that wants to skim them:

"I hope everyone reads this book and learns about the cruel business of selling pets." - Bowser, a dog

"I can confirm I make money - making you feel bad about yourself." - Marketing Executive

"We've finally been bested in the battle for best book with 'onomics' in the title." - Freakonomics

"Buying this book was the best decision I ever made." - You, in the Future

"I didn't really care for this book." - Your Childhood Nemesis

"You know what the world needs? Another book." - Priceonomics Middle Management

"Under no circumstances should anyone read this book." - CEO of De Beers

"Finally, a book that helps me steal bicycles more efficiently!" - Bike Thief

"Nutella really is healthy. Hahaha, I can't even say that with a straight face." - Food Industry Lobbyist

"An intellectual tour de force of staggering proportions - Priceonomics" - Winston Churchill

"After reading this book, I think I was duped into knighting a scoundrel." - The Queen of England

"No this book is not tax deductible. Why would you even ask that?" - Your Accountant

"Any press is good press, right?" - Actual Seal Clubbers

"With my endorsement, this book will reach the tipping point before you blink." - Galcolm Madwell

"Until this book, I had no idea why people started calling me Chilean Sea Bass." - An Arctic Toothfish

"Mandatory reading at the Zoolander Center for Children Who Can't Read Good!" - D. Zoolander

"Do not buy this book. Contains almost no practical information about bullshit or manure." - Farmer

"Yes, the oligarchy needs something to spend its money on. " - Art Dealer

"Finally, a book that passes judgement on my life's work!" - A Bordeaux Winemaker

"You mean I wasted all my savings on a diamond ring?" - Dudes Everywhere

"Can I interest anyone in a 'free' credit report? Lol." - The Experian Corporation

"Of course pizza is a vegetable! Don't listen to those troublemakers at Priceonomics." - US Congress

"Finally a book I can enthusiastically give two thumbs up!" - Friedrich Nietzsche

"I only read the title, but I entirely disagree with everything in this book." - Internet Commenter

beamatronic2• 12 years ago

Can't forget:

"I only read the title, but I entirely agree with everything in this book." - Internet Commenter

chintan• 12 years ago

Stored it. http://imgur.com/NnCzDaX

rondon2• 12 years ago

Thanks for explaining that you get $6 either way (Hardcopy or Kindle) I would have assumed you get more with the hard copy.

marban• 12 years ago

No iBook?

ironicman• 12 years ago

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

bwood• 12 years ago

Email share just worked fine for me.

blisterpeanuts5• 12 years ago

I 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?

LoganCale2• 12 years ago

The horror! Someone might encounter a word!

ivan_ah5• 12 years ago

It says parent under your post, but are you really a parent?

Could it be that some people have different points of view on language usage around their kids?

coffeecodecouch2• 12 years ago

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.

alttab3• 12 years ago

Or expect to be able to shelter your children forever.

Source: Not a dad.

blisterpeanuts5• 12 years ago

I don't want it in my kindle library where she might see it.

The simplest solution is to not acquire the book.

ivan_ah5• 12 years ago

this kind of language

Could you explain a bit about this? Is this an American thing? Two different online advertisement platforms refused to place ads for my book because of the "swear word" in the title. I didn't get it...

To me bullshit isn't a swear word at all... except for the unpleasant graphical nature of reference, I would classify it totally in a different category from other swear words. It like a strong version of "crap" ... as in what kind of crap is this?

sp3322• 12 years ago

"Crap" is a weaker word for "shit" because sometimes the word "shit" is too strong. There's a language phenomenon called "code switching" - in different contexts, people will use different words or even switch languages. Remember in Firefly, when people got emotional and started swearing in Chinese? It's like that. http://english.stackexchange.com/a/29271

shitgoose2• 12 years ago

Just put this book with the rest of your magazines.

clarkm• 12 years ago

He's just suggesting that the book follow the same guidelines the magazines figured out ages ago: use discreet packaging.

Crito• 12 years ago

9 year olds are typically in what, 3rd or 4th grade? Unless you are homeschooling him, he may not be swearing at home but that ship has long since sailed. I'm sure he and his recess buddies could teach you a few new words.

dangliar3• 12 years ago

I'd consider you as someone with class and higher moral standards. Never apologise for that. We need more people like you Brian.

JetSpiegel3• 12 years ago

I'm sorry, but that is bullshit. Plain and simple.

blisterpeanuts5• 12 years ago

Are you replying to me? Who's Brian?

yongjik• 12 years ago

Or, you know, when your 9-year-old asks you "Papa(Mama), what is 'bullshit'?" You could explain that it does not literally means cattle manure, is a strong and rude expression sometimes used by people, and it's best to avoid that kind of expression in conversation.

Either you kid will learn the word from you (instead of their peers) and gain more knowledge, or they'll just mentally shrug and think "What the _, I'm nine and my dad thinks I don't know bullshit!"

Just don't act horrified when you're asked. That will fascinate your kids to no end.

Source(?): I have a 8-year-old daughter. (Hopefully she doesn't know what is 'bullshit' yet... but what's the big deal?)

blisterpeanuts5• 12 years ago

I'm surprised at all the somewhat naive and pseudo-street-wise responses to what I consider a common sense stance.

Of course, I know that my child is being exposed to this kind of language in the schoolyard and in the media. She's heard me accidentally say it in earshot a few times, for Pete's sake.

I just consider it a coarse and low class way of expressing oneself. I know she'll eventually be teaching me swear words I've never even heard. I know she'll privately be speaking that way amongst her friends and peers. I know it's in literature and essays that she'll be reading.

I just find it distasteful to hear a young child speak that way, and I find it offensive to hear an adult talk that way in front of a young child. It's how I was raised, how nearly everyone in my generation was raised.

Look, if one of these kids, who thinks it's cool to put words like "Fuck" and "Bullshit" in the title of a blog or e-book, were to walk into a five star restaurant that requires fancy attire and start dropping the F-bomb, they'd be asked to leave or at a minimum generate some annoyance and disruption.

But they wouldn't speak that way in a five star restaurant, nor would they walk into a day care center and speak that way, nor would they curse in front of a neighbor's young children. Why? Because they know better. They know that society, even today, does not condone that kind of language around young children.

Many, if not most, parents would disapprove to the point of threatening with violence someone who was clueless enough to curse in front of their children. At a minimum, parents would whisk their children away and shun such a person as a clueless jerk or someone with mental problems.

If the authors of the book think they're being cute by using bullshit in the title, they're wrong. They're just resorting to a cheap trick that may trigger the "so what, that's how everyone talks" type of reaction in some, but will trigger the equally legitimate "Get that off my screen!" reaction in others.

Paul_Dessert• 12 years ago

Just a quick suggestion to the Priceonomics team... Start with the bottom half of the article. I had to go half way down the page to find out what the book is about. The first half talks about you WAY too much.

ajkjk• 12 years ago

Well, I thought reading about them was really interesting. I think it made me a lot more likely to buy the book, especially since they were delightfully honest in explaining their motivations.

riffraff• 12 years ago

I was so expecting the justification for pricing the kindle version at $9.26!

meritt3• 12 years ago

I'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 web scraping; sending out cease & desists and even sometimes going as far as taking someone to court.

What's the best + safest approach here for a company like Priceonomics?

hodgesmr• 12 years ago

"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?

meritt3• 12 years ago

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.

JVIDEL• 12 years ago

I think part of the problem is that some services' TOS do give users the option to restrict access to their information so if you go and scrap it that might cause problems to the startup where that content was posted to.

guiomie• 12 years ago

Just did an impulsive amazon checkout. All this frictionless online shopping is getting dangerous.

HackNews -> Amazon -> Paypal -> Gmail (confirmation) in less then 1 minute.

TeMPOraL• 12 years ago

One-click buy is literally scary. I bought several books for Kindle on impulse this way. "Oh, what an interesting book, I'd read it. Hmm... <click> [creditCard -= $14;]".

ChuckFrank3• 12 years ago

It 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.

rohin• 12 years 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.

patcon• 12 years ago

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

steveklabnik2• 12 years ago

BTW, do you have any data on the optimum pricing of an ebook being $2.99-4.99?

I smell a new post!!!

ChuckFrank3• 12 years 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-...

Here are some more current discussions.

http://gigaom.com/2013/05/09/whats-the-best-price-for-a-self...

http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-can-the-avera...

(see pricing barometer above)

http://boingboing.net/2014/01/16/whats-the-most-profitable-p...

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-fu...

*Note -- Charlize Theron NSFW (not actually it's part of the joke)

ekianjo3• 12 years ago

Many people had advanced copies of various drafts of the book

Seems like you cherry-picked who got the advanced copies...

hkmurakami• 12 years ago

As far as I know, Eric Reis' "Lean Startup" book was largely a repackage of his blog posts, but that didn't stop it from being a success.

Then again, much like you, as an avid reader of the original blog, I did not pick up a copy ;)

thret• 12 years ago

Addressing your concern about 'repackaged articles', the 'Hyperbole and a Half' book was in the same situation. I really just bought it to support the blog, but I really enjoyed reading it. Even when though you've read half the content before, the distance of a few years and the feel of paper make it an enjoyable experience. Plus I've been able to loan it out to a few friends who wouldn't otherwise go and read through a few years of blog posts.

I will be buying this book too and I expect the same enjoyment. If only I had a pleasant, crackling fire!

OrwellianChild• 12 years ago

Looks 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...

ivan_ah5• 12 years ago

I wouldn't have said it in so much words, but the authors are onto an important new business model:

   free web stuff and sell books

The key point is that content in the form of a book (a unit of meaningful discourse) can be productized and offered in a sidebar. Instead of advertisements that pay micro cents per impression, why not offer a book and make 40% profit on print books and 97% profit on eBooks sold?

I'm not sure this will work for journalism, but for a lot of other types of content (ahm... hm.... textbooks), it's going to work for sure. The questions are: (1) what kind of reading is better done in book-sized chunks, and (2) how to decide which content goes into the free stuff and how much into the paid book.

The OPs are using the improved blog posts + new content equation, which has never been tried before. It will be very interesting to watch.

steveklabnik2• 12 years ago

This model isn't that new. Webcomics and Tumblrs have been putting out coffee table books for years.

bmelton• 12 years ago

Agreed. "Stuff White People Like" is perhaps the earliest one I can think of, but "Shit My Dad Says", Dan Lewis' "Now I Know" and even our own Patio11's "Sell More Software" have all executed this business model, or one close enough to it to count as prior art.

ivan_ah5• 12 years ago

I guess what I find new is the how easy it has become to print stuff these days, e.g. via peecho.com or lulu.com. I'm all for eBooks, but there is something about the printed book that makes me more likely to want to pay for it...

Could you show me examples of Webcomics and/or Webcomics for sale? Are they in print or PDF? I'd be interested to check their pricing models.

dangliar3• 12 years ago

I did that 10 years ago (which is how I got my first book published). The formula you describe has been done countless times for many years already.

ivan_ah5• 12 years ago

Did you self-publish or work with a publisher? What were your margins like in the end?

You're right, this is not a new model per se, but it's becoming more mainstream.

What fascinates me is the power of print-on-demand because it allows anyone to easily get into the book business. If Gutenberg's invention of technology giving people access to books was a revolution, it would make sense that technology that gives people access to printing presses is also going to cause a stir.

(I keep a notebook of links to articles about the book business here spundge.com/notebook/6774/ , in case anyone is interested.)

ekianjo3• 12 years ago

an important new business model

Nothing new in that business model. I have seen several popular bloggers do the exact same thing way before this initiative. That's natural : build your audience through a free service, then monetize goods targeted to this audience.

jonthn• 12 years ago

Can I get this on iBooks?

brianbreslin• 12 years ago

I have never so quickly impulse bought a kindle book. Didn't even read reviews, since I love their blog so much.

shitgoose2• 12 years ago

They should be more specific: Everything is Bullshit, except for this Book. Otherwise people may arrive to wrong conclusion.

ccarter84• 12 years ago

'wrong conclusion'

dangliar3• 12 years ago

I know my karma is going to get nuked, but as a datapoint to the authors of Priceonomics: I'll never buy a book with a curseword in the title. It screams "amateur hour".

EDIT: Maybe you can use that topic for an upcoming blog post.

blisterpeanuts5• 12 years ago

I agree, and I got nuked as well, but I'm still going to express my opinion. It seems to me that it's possible to come up with a creative title to draw people in without resorting to profanity. Profanity has shock value but also will turn off some people, so it's risky and possibly counter-productive.

coffeecodecouch2• 12 years ago

I agree with you somewhat that using curse words in book titles can be amateurish, like clickbait in the physical world.

PS the reason you're being downvoted is most likely because you prefaced your comment with "I know my karma is going to get nuked, but...". That's very Redditesque and is usually not tolerated.

mrottenkolber• 12 years ago

Not purchasable as a print copy in germany. And no, I will not buy a license to read it on my not existing kindle. The joys of Amazon.

warmfuzzykitten• 12 years ago

I'm pretty sure you can read Kindle books on any smart phone, tablet or computer you might own. That is actually one of the joys of Amazon.

ekianjo3• 12 years ago

In japan the kndle version costs 20 percent more. That too is bullshit.

ericdykstra• 12 years ago

Looks great! Any plans releasing this as an audiobook? I do most of my reading while walking or washing dishes these days.

Everything Is Bullshit: A Book by Priceonomics

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