This is great! Raganwald is already one of my favorites, here and on twitter. I love to see stuff like this. I guess I know what I'll be doing for the next hour or two.
I also made a slightly reformatted HTML version here http://static.v25media.com/edw519_mod.html - I just added anchor links so it was easier to navigate the sections and such.
Thanks for putting that all together, it's been an inspiration. Looking forward to Raganwald's as well.
Would you like to see what your book would look like as a Leanpub book? It's trivial for us to import the HTML, which automatically gets converted to Markdown for you. If so, just reply here or email me (peter@leanpub.com) -- or try it yourself of course :)
Note to self: Leanpub.com disrupts book publishing industry, it took them just ~ 11 months (EDIT: 2 yrs - look below) to get traction. Surprisingly, their original post got just TWO karma points:
It took a bit longer than 11 months: Eric Ries was our first customer (a good first customer to have!), and his first sale was on April 21, 2010. So it took about 2 years.
When we launched we were based on a hacked up version of WordPress MU. We've pivoted a couple times, and Leanpub today is based on writing your book in Markdown on your own computer (or iPad), and syncing with Leanpub using Dropbox.
Along the way we had a brief period where we used GitHub instead of Dropbox, but we felt that limited us to only highly technical authors. (We do use Git internally still, but Dropbox is a lot more accessible and it makes our publish workflow really nice.)
By the way, thanks very much for linking to that post -- you've more than tripled its karma points!
I guess a year ago we were slightly ahead in our timing, or my post was too long, or (probably) I didn't emphasize Eric Ries and Venture Hacks enough...
You are welcome. I've studied what makes a story be picked up. It's mostly time of the day and the name of the submitter. Here are my partial findings:
Yes, sorry about that. We've been rather slammed today.
The short answer is that we don't support it. We could if we were just using LaTeX => PDF (which we do), but then things would blow up when doing epub and mobi.
I'll take this as another vote for the feature, though :).
I really appreciate Raganwald's willingness to put these essays together into a convenient format and give them away. I enjoyed and probably learned a lot from them.
However, the publisher has not done its job here. I'm reading the Mobi version on Kindle for iPhone, and the constant formatting errors make it difficult to follow the text. This includes missing punctuation, missing indentation on blockquotes that make it impossible to see where the quote ends, random font changes in and out of a monospace font, random spacing around headers, and the lack of a table of contents.
If you want to call a collection of blog posts a "book" and ask for money for it, you need to at least proofread your output files and make sure basic standards of copy-editing hold. As it stands I will avoid buying from Leanpub in the future.
We'll look into the formatting issues in the Mobi version. A couple things:
1. Leanpub is not a "publisher" in the sense of having proofreaders, editors, etc. We're a website that authors can use to self-publish ebooks, including in-progress ebooks. Self-publishing an in-progress ebook lets you iterate based on feedback like this.
2. We have an unconditional 100% refund policy. So if you're unhappy with your purchase for any reason just email your PayPal receipt to hello@leanpub.com and we'll refund your money, no questions asked.
The refund policy is pretty noble of you. Do you find that very many people actually ask for refunds? In particular, how about months down the line? How do you deal with refunds once the author has been paid, do you just deal with the costs yourself?
It's equals part noble and self-interested: ebooks cost us essentially nothing to ship, so why not refund them fully and unconditionally? It's the right thing to do. Also, people will buy more books if we remove the risk.
This is especially true since we're a self-publishing website and we exercise virtually no control over what we sell.
In terms of numbers, we've had thousands of purchases and only a handful of refunds. I think we've had about 10 or 15 refunds in total. (I do the refunds myself, manually, via PayPal's web interface.)
In terms of how we handle refunds with respect to the author: we subtract them from royalties. We pay royalties quarterly so we don't have issues about whether the author gets paid before a refund is requested -- if someone wants a refund they usually ask for it within a day of purchasing!
Now, we may be lucky here, in that the quality of books sold on Leanpub is pretty high, even though almost all the books are in-progress books that the author is iterating on. As we grow we may have more of an issue; who knows, someday we may even need to automate the refund process...
I probably would not have bought this book, but I did get a copy because it's free. I hope there is a way to retroactively throw some scratch to the author should I find it useful. That seems like a good model, akin to music "piracy" where I find music I love and then buy it. Or, I guess I could "buy" it again...
Thanks for the book. I downloaded and read it this evening. I identified quite well with one of the bad examples, and felt puffed up because your suggestion for learning communication skills was just what I was telling myself to do.
Now I just downloaded Ed's book, perhaps it will help fix my procrastination. :)
The exercises I've suggested for others applies universally, I reckon.
1) Oral communication: Advertise your office/skype/mobile phone number in your sig or any comms with colleagues. Then solicit them to phone you for any reason. You will get calls. Then talk to them instead of letting it go to voicemail.
2) Written: Prefer e-mail over twitter/sms/irc. Never write one word or sentence rattles unless it is a response in kind. If someone has written a thoughtfully written, detailled and professional email to you, return the favor.
3) When it is more convenient to fire off a quick email or text to someone sitting across the hall, get up and go talk to them instead. This is even more important if you don't know them personally. Introduce yourself, engage in conversation.
4) Nerves are for the nervous. If you aren't nervous in front of friends, relatives, or complete strangers at the grocery store, you shouldn't be nervous in front of your colleagues or bosses. They cut and bleed just as readily as the rest of those you know.
I get told fairly often that I write/communicate well. I learned a lot of that by participating in online discussions. Trying to say something clearly so it is not wildly misinterpretted is really challenging. Having the chance to clarify when it has been wildly misinterpretted is a valuable growth experience. I suggest you start posting a lot more than you do currently, if not here than elsewhere.
I just downloaded this book for free because I was suspicious of the contents and thought it'd be another airy book filled with old quotes and obvious but encouraging sentences.
Now that I've read the first 3 pages I want to pay for it. Is there a way of doing this from the site itself, or do I need to "re-buy" the book?
I wish there was a regular credit card payment option. As it stands, due to brain dead PayPal policies, I cannot use PayPal from the country I'm in, and I would really like to pay for the book.
As a Leanpub co-founder, can you let me know which of the following would have worked for you:
a) Google Checkout
b) Amazon Checkout
c) Credit card (via Stripe or similar)
Google Checkout then Amazon payments for me, but either would be fine.
Like a lot of people I'm vaguely uncomfortable with giving credit card details to companies I haven't heard of before & whilst I have a Paypal ID, I only use it for those places insist on Paypal (eBay mainly), so I can never remember the password and have to look it up. (Yeah, yeah, KeePass et al, I know, I'll get round to it at some point...) I use Amazon and Google often enough that logging in to them in order to make a payment isn't such a hurdle.
Not the OP: Google Checkout, followed by Amazon. (Then again, I'm biased ;)
Simply because it allows me to pay with something I'll always have handy, my user credentials. At any given point, I might or might not have a credit card close by. (Yes, I read HN in bed :)
i would love to be able to pay with amazon checkout. google checkout would be great too. as a datapoint, one reason i didn't pay for the book was that i avoid dealing with paypal wherever possible.
It's great that Leanpub makes it so easy to register, but it would be even better if you didn't have to. I don't want to provide my email address to download a file. I used a disposable one and I'm sure some others did, too. That's just going to add (a tiny bit of) work for the Leanpub email server and make their stats look a little better than they really are.
Also, the site creating a "profile" for me when all I did was download a book makes me feel "sucked in" a little. I know, rationally, that there's really no downside to it for me, but I still can't shake the feeling that this is more than I agreed to.
Part of the rationale is that this is how you can access updates: I notify my readers when I add a new essay to the book through leanpub: I don't see your address or any other info, but leanpub forwards my message to the book's readers as an email.
Not only did I not mind giving my email address to a reputable companly, I wish they made it easier to sign up for news about similar books, not just updates/news about this one.
I just tried to get it. I am on a tablet and all attempts to download it have failed. I will chime in and note that I am in pretty dire straits financially (homeless and my freelance work recently fell through -- I am pretty up a creek) and was very concerned it was going to charge me. The means to request it is not very clear in that regard.
We just doubled our number of web servers to handle the massive HN traffic today, so please try again. If you have any issues downloading please email hello@leanpub.com.
We'll look into this issue. Which generation iPad do you have?
All Leanpub books include free lifetime updates, so when it's resolved you'll have a free update. (You also get free updates if the author updates the book for any reason, like adding new content, etc. We believe in self-publishing in-progress ebooks, so that you can iterate on your book like you would a startup. We call this idea lean publishing.)
Also, we have an unconditional 100% refund policy, so if you're unhappy for any reason just forward your PayPal receipt to hello@leanpub.com and we'll refund your money.
I feel guilty. I just got the book for free and I feel like I need to justify it. I really respect Raganwald and I would love to pay and he deserves it. I took it free because the honest truth is that business is really, supremely bad right now. I have a total of $60 in the bank and a few grand in bills due plus some other awful things. I justify (maybe wrongly) downloading it free by assuming the book will help me and when business picks up again I'll buy another copy for as much money as I can muster to the point that I'm almost uncomfortable with the price I pay. I promise this. And I'm sorry.
Do my other freeloaders feel guilty? Or are there none? Or are there some but don't feel bad at all?
Edit: Just read the "Why You Need a Degree to Work at BigCo" section and already it's worth a lot more than the asking price.
I only have one vote, but I think it’s meaningful in this case :-) If you’re in no position to pay for it, I want you to have it for free, and I’m glad that you went ahead and read it. If you do find it helpful, that would make me very happy.
This is a book I’ve already written, so it’s a sunk cost for me... It’s all blog posts that others have found useful or meaningful in their search for decent work with decent people at a decent wage. The more people find good work, the more we all benefit. If you’re out of work, you can’t click through ads to buy stuff, you can’t employ others, you can’t subscribe to services.
Helping you be healthy, happy, and financially secure is a win for us all.
Also, I’ve recently been “talking loud” about copyright cartels and the importance of being able to copy bits. Giving this “book” away is an attempt to do a little walking the walk instead of just talking the talk. I also considered creating a book solely to be distributed free on torrents. I may still do that.
p.s. Some people have gone ahead and paid for the book. Thank you! Remember that if you have a budget for books and you don’t mind doing a few extra clicks, buy one of my other books and download this one for free, you’ll get two books and I’ll be just as happy :-)
I have a book I published using Leanpub and I set the minimum to be $10. Some people pay the minimum. Some people pay the suggested price of $15. Some have even been as generous as to pay MORE than the suggested price.
If I ever decide to give away my book for free for a limited time, I would not feel bad about people giving me $0 when they could give me whatever they want.
I am in agreement with Raganwald in that I just want people to read it and find it helpful.
I wrote a short Python tutorial (http://www.korokithakis.net/tutorials/python/) which I packaged up as a book in a few hours and put on LeanPub. I used to sell it for $2, but the LeanPub guys changed the pricing structure to minimum/recommended, so I set the recommended price at $5.
People have been buying it for $5 ever since, and I've even had some $8s and $10s. I even include a link to the tutorial right on the book page, because I don't think it's worth even $2, but apparently people do!
Thank you for understanding. I know things will pick up and I promise to buy a copy when they do. I hope one day I can repay the favor. Of course you didn't set out to really do anyone Any favors here but it certainly feels like it. Thanks for the book. I am reading right now and I'm glad I got it.
I love his type of content publishing. It works the same way as the Humble Bundles.
If you give something away for free, I'll take it for free.
If you give me the option to pay $0, and give me a reasonable suggested price(this book), I'll pay the suggested price.
If you give me the option to pay $0, show me what others are paying(humble bundle), I'll pay the median.
If you give me the option to pay $0, and give me "bonuses" at certain price breaks (kickstarter, humble bundle), I'll pay at the most attractive price break.
It actually makes a ton of sense to adopt these kind of pricing structures because people actually pay!
> If you give me the option to pay $0, and give me a reasonable suggested price(this book), I'll pay the suggested price.
I actually didn't download it at all because of that. A free book to throw on my Kindle and maybe look through on a slower day is great but setting the price to zero felt like ripping off someone who contributes to HN and spoiling his metrics. I bookmarked it though so there's some gain from this tactic.
That same thought process went through my mind (kids, mortgage, cars, start up, yada yada). I decided to enter the zero, though, for two reasons:
1. Even though it isn't cash, it is a way for me to tell Raganwald that I appreciate his efforts, both the book, the blog, and the community. Of course this is not as valuable as cash and I'm really not trying to rationalize not paying, but I can only give what I've currently got.
2. If I gain some particular value from having read this, I am always free to remunerate the author in the future based on that value. I can't do that (and perhaps could have missed an opportunuty) if I'm not subjected to his ideas first.
It is interesting the psychology that goes into this kind of thing. I contrast this with the Humble Bundles, where I don't download them, because my available time for gaming is so small that I cant even claim my download is a show of appreciation for the work.
Peter from Leanpub here. If you're down to your last $60, please don't feel guilty not paying anything! Come back later and buy the book (or one of raganwald's other books) if you want. (On the bestsellers page, his other books are currently in the #5 and #9 spots.)
The reason we did the sliders this way is to encourage people who have extra disposable income to pay more. Since the Leanpub royalty rates are so good, we felt we should show what the author gets right on the purchase page. That's why we subtly change their color as they are dragged up and down, as well as live-updating the royalty, etc. So I'm really happy since this shows that they are working as intended :)
It would be great to have the ability to post-pay. I can imagine finishing the book and realizing that it was worth $20, and wanting to pay more. In this case if I come back to LeanPub there would be a list of books I selected to postpay, so after I finished reading them I could judge the true value and pay that (or add to what I have already paid).
Not sure how well that would work in practice but it resonates well with me. What hooked me was the title and the word free, the advantage with free is that I don't have to make up my mind on how much it is worth. My first reaction was that I could, since it was free, just grab it and see what it was.
But the instant I came to the site I felt guilty. I ended up paying the suggested price only because the suggested price was sensible (if the suggested price had been more I'd probably would have paid less) and because leanpub seems awesome (just found out about it). Since I know nothing about the book itself I didn't take that into account when buying, it could of course be worth much more.
EDIT: DRM-free and giving me multiple formats to choose from (and not forcing me to select one) is awesome and is one of the reasons I really wanted to buy it. Otherwise I would have had to strip the DRM first (I don't accept DRM on e-books that I buy, even if it makes me a criminal).
Combine it with other features (Write the author, discuss the book with author and readers, rate the book) and invite the reader on the last page of the book.
It worked very well. Knowing how much the author gets and seeing it go up and down makes me feel empathetic and makes me think how I'd feel if I were the one selling. I always find that when payment pages are set up this way that I'm not being "sold" something but instead like I'm being offered something useful. It also makes the whole thing feel more human if that's the right word. Payments are almost like adversarial type situations where one party is trying to take money that you're protecting. When it's set up like this it helps break down that attitude and shows you how both you and the seller are helping each other.
I fully intended to take it for free, but I paid for the book because the asking price is under my impulse-purchase threshold. Writing a book is such a time-consuming and difficult process $5 seems like a tip.
I by no means think that means everyone else needs to pay something for the book -- but I'm in a position to pay $5 today, and the book looks interesting, so it's worth the charge.
I downloaded it for free only because I saw the link while sitting in bed and didn't feel like looking for my credit card. I appreciated that the followup email had info about paying for the book by buying another of raganwald's books.
Typically, when someone makes their creation available for free with an optional donation, I will donate a few dollars to encourage other content creators to do the same.
It is odd, though. I am not so much supporting or applauding the specific content creator, but more encouraging future ones to make their payments sliding or optional.
For instance, I buy every Humble Bundle that comes out, but have never played the games.
I feel the same way. Pretty much the only things I buy online are those offered for free, in an effort to support content creators who use such a scheme.
Don't feel guilty, appreciate that it was given for free. When things turn around, pay it forward. Doesn't even need to be in the same method - buy a homeless person a hot meal.
I'd say what you should do though, now that you got the thing for free - is actually read it - then leave feedback.
I agree with you on the guilt evoked by the site design.
I immediately second guessed whether or not it was worth downloading and ultimately decided I would be willing to pay if it proved valuable. I reviewed the table of contents and saw the chapter "The single most important thing you must do to improve your programming career" so I decided to download it. I skimmed the chapter, decided it wasn't worth my money, deleted the pdf, immediately unsubscribed from the website, and then came back to HN and wrote this comment.
Is the design good because it urges a person to pay? Probably. Is the design dangerous because of the violent reaction people, like myself, get from the feeling of guilt it triggers? Probably.
I've mentioned a couple of times on HN, but just one more: increasing prices means you deal with less pathological customers. What does a pathological customer sound like? They get something for free and then want their money back.
They also feel as other people have a moral obligation to comport their business affairs to the specifications of the pathological customer, and this is a very nonreciprocal obligation, because pathological customers will do absolutely nothing to change their desired behaviors as a result of a business relationship.
We don't want violent reactions of guilt; sorry about that :( There is enough guilt in life. Please don't feel any because of Leanpub.
What we were going for was more of a "little nudge", if you have the disposable income. That's why the slider goes from a pastel green to a neutral "meh" grey (instead of a red, which would make you feel bad) when you go lower, and to a nicer, darker green as you go higher.
On second thought, I guess if we wanted to be evil about this we could have some graphic where you have a dinner plate full of food, and as you lower the slider you're removing side dishes (and say if you go free then the entree goes too), and if you raise the slider you add say a glass of wine, a dessert, etc -- now that would be a fun design to A/B test :)
If I were you I wouldn't be feeling guilty. Its not the design that made me feel guilty. It was knowing that the author deserved to get paid for the work while not paying. So in my case I got something valuable for free. I think it's great to be able to get it, read a bit, then decide its not worth money and not pay if you don't find it valuable. But while this is great, I think there's danger on both sides. The author is giving it for free, allowing you to preview and decide the worth. Awesome. But if you've gotten it already for free and decide its worth your money, like in my case, what's to stop you from never going back to pay. You have to find the link again (which admittedly is super easy to remember -good job) then go through the payment process. There's not much of a barrier to paying after the fact but there still is one. I promised to pay but how will anyone ever know?
So what's the best thing to do? Give it away free and hope the honor system works or force payment and have unhappy customers? I don't see a best answer here, unfortunately.
More important people (author, publisher) have commented on this already, so this is nothing but a very humble additional opinion here:
I think you have the best reason to take the author up on his offer. You cannot purchase it. He offers you a way to get it for free. That's a good match.
For me, I came to that site lead by the title. I like raganwald's contribution here and expected something like a free 'Learn Python the hard way' style thing. Or a blog-articles-in-pdf. With maybe little (publishing!) effort and just a heads-up for the people here.[1]
Seeing that it is actually a book in progress I left. I cannot pay for purely technical reasons (No credit card, this country doesn't want to give me one and my home country revoked mine when they didn't see any incoming salary for roughly a year). But I earn a pretty damn good salary here and got money in the bank. So _I_ would need to feel guilty for free-loading if I just grabbed the book.
You really shouldn't. And good luck anyway.
Edit:
1: Actually, after rereading raganwald's comment I think that is pretty much correct. But the site says 'Note: You are buying an Alpha Book. New essays will be added on a regular basis, and you will receive updates for free.' so I don't understand how this 'sunk costs' works in this case?
I have not heard about Roganwald until this thread, and feel this is a great opportunity to learn about him. I will check out the book for free, and if it offers value for me (teach me stuff i did not already know), i will happily go back and make a contribution.
I got it for free, because I don't see me ever reading it (but I'll put it on the Kindle just in case), and I wouldn't have ever gotten it otherwise. I don't feel guilty, if I like it I'll buy some other of his books.
I got it for free too. I am not equipped with any online payment method yet (I know, it's already 2012 :( ). So I can only be very grateful to the author for making it possible for me to read it too.
Just a reminder, my ebook is free, too:
html on my blog: http://edweissman.com/53640595
Or if you prefer a pdf, someone I don't even know (thank you, whoever you are) was kind enough to put one here: http://v25media.s3.amazonaws.com/edw519_mod.pdf