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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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;]".
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.
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.
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?
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!
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?
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.
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
[+] [-] ChuckFrank|11 years ago|reply
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|11 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] thret|11 years ago|reply
I will be buying this book too and I expect the same enjoyment. If only I had a pleasant, crackling fire!
[+] [-] hkmurakami|11 years ago|reply
Then again, much like you, as an avid reader of the original blog, I did not pick up a copy ;)
[+] [-] ivansavz|11 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] steveklabnik|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ekianjo|11 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] dangliar|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] guiomie|11 years ago|reply
HackNews -> Amazon -> Paypal -> Gmail (confirmation) in less then 1 minute.
[+] [-] TeMPOraL|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Paul_Dessert|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ajkjk|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pgrote|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] atwebb|11 years ago|reply
"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
[+] [-] chintan|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beggi|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alexmayyasi|11 years ago|reply
http://priceonomics.com/introducing-the-priceonomics-busines...
[+] [-] vinceguidry|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drpgq|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] talles|11 years ago|reply
https://www.paypalobjects.com/webstatic/i/logo/rebrand/ppcom...
http://priceonomics.com/static/images/logo/front.png
[+] [-] alaskamiller|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] the_cat_kittles|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] meritt|11 years ago|reply
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|11 years ago|reply
Like Google?
[+] [-] JVIDEL|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brianbreslin|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] OrwellianChild|11 years ago|reply
The Economics of Writing a Book, by Carter Phipps http://priceonomics.com/can-authors-make-money-selling-books...
[+] [-] roma1n|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] riffraff|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ekianjo|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ebspelman|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ironicman|11 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] shitgoose|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ccarter84|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] memoirmasters|11 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] rondon2|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ericdykstra|11 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] aluhut|11 years ago|reply