Small publisher of how-to books here. Congratulations on the launch -- you really hit one out of the park! I like approach that you took to producing this title, which clearly is a labor of love.
Looking at the data you shared, the 8,000-strong email list clearly made a major impact on the launch. How long did it take to go from 0 to 8k, and what sort of signup form or CTA did you use?
One other question: How have direct sales been on Smashwords? I don't use Smashwords (until recently, they required the title page to give special credit to Smashwords, which rubbed me the wrong way) but since they removed that requirement I have been thinking of adding it as a standalone channel for In 30 Minutes guides. I distribute directly through Amazon, Createspace, Lightning Source, iTunes/iBooks, B&N, Kobo, and a few other obscure sites (txtr and Libiro). PDFs are sold through Gumroad.
One suggestion I have for HNers who have read the book is to leave honest reviews wherever you bought it -- this can really help the long tail of sales. Amazon marks reader reviews from customers with "Verified Purchase," which gives those comments more weight in the eyes of prospective customers.
> Looking at the data you shared, the 8,000-strong email list clearly made a major impact on the launch.
Yeah, I think so, though I'm not savvy with analytics enough to tell where readers are actually coming from.
> How long did it take to go from 0 to 8k,
I added the mailing list blurb to the site around 2013-08. Over the next eight months, I wrote ten chapters where each one got the site a bump of traffic and drew a bunch of sign-ups.
> and what sort of signup form or CTA did you use?
I don't know what a CTA is, but I used mailchimp and tweaked the sign-up form myself. It's a little different now that the book is done, but you can see what it used to look like here:
> One other question: How have direct sales been on Smashwords?
OK, but not great. While I totally get people who don't like walled gardens and just want to buy a file, the reality seems to be that most shoppers go through managed eBook stores like Kindle, iBooks, etc.
I mainly used Smashwords because they seemed like an easier path to get the book into iBooks and a bunch of smaller marketplaces I couldn't be bothered to manage manually.
> PDFs are sold through Gumroad.
Huh. In my brief research for where to sell the PDF, that didn't turn up. I'm using payhip, which seems nice so far.
> One suggestion I have for HNers who have read the book is to leave honest reviews wherever you bought it -- this can really help the long tail of sales.
YES YES YES. Buying one copy is nice. Writing a review is like buying N copies.
I bought this book and I'm thoroughly enjoying it and learning quite a bit (caveat: I am not a game programmer specifically but I wanted to learn more about the patterns and strategies in game design so I don't have much of a frame of comparison but I still find the book very well written and informative).
> caveat: I am not a game programmer specifically but I wanted to learn more about the patterns and strategies in game design
No-so-secret secret: Most of the patterns in the book are equally useful outside of games too. I just (1) thought game examples were a lot more fun to write and read about and (2) thought game developers wouldn't take it as seriously unless it was directly targeted towards them.
I, like quite a few others around here it seems, read the web version when it was posted to HN a while back. It was so good that I actually ditched my daily cycle commute for a couple of weeks so I had the chance read little snatches on the train.
For those that haven't read it, have a look - I'm sure you'll be hooked. The content (in terms of the patterns) is really nice and very clearly explained. Beyond that though, the style and humour is absolutely spot on. It doesn't feel like a technical read - it's more like an adventure.
I'm going to buy a copy out of support, and honestly, I'll probably read it again.
I bought the book and I have to say I really like it. It's very nicely written. Hopefully I'll be able to post some game on HN myself in a few months, using this book.
Another great writeup - I'm only one data point, but I've been waiting to ask someone for a copy for Christmas, so you might hopefully see another spike around then.
Now that you've launched, you should no longer approach marketing as a singular or continual event. I think this is a mistake many startups make. Do campaigns. Think of a multi-pronged approach (coupons, promotions, blog posts, etc) each towards a singular splashy event. Then keep repeating this a few times on a 2 month basis, or how ever long you can invest.
You can see Patio11 does this with his business and holidays are a big part of his (original) business.
You can also combine this with business dev/partnerships as well. Do you know events that are coming up? Work together with them to help cross-promote. Do a special landing page and coupon for attendees. Maybe do a talk.
This creates a repeatable process to boost sales, where you can refine your techniques and measure your time vs ROI for a particular campaign. Then you can compare which campaigns worked the best.
It's also much more fun than simply A/B testing headlines.
I love your book, I got it when you it was up for free. That being said, I mostly consult the webpage version. Thanks so much for creating this. I feel guilty now.
> That being said, I mostly consult the webpage version.
That's absolutely, totally fine. Buying a copy is something to opt into for people who specifically want those formats or want to reward me for writing, not an obligation you karmically incur for reading the web site.
I get real personal value just by having readers and having felt like I reached a broader audience and made more of a human connection. Cash is nice too, but it's not the only incentive.
As the founder of a "game engine startup", I found this post extremely useful. I'll be purchasing your book if only to support your marketing research.
"design patterns are spoonfeed material for brainless programmers incapable of independent thought, who will be resolved to producing code as mediocre as the design patterns they use to create it." - christer ericson
hah, congrats bob, awesome to see your book released. how random running into this on hacker news, been almost a decade. glad your enjoying google! will never forget the days of ZOD!!
I worked at EA Tiburon for eight years. I worked directly on Madden PC 2002, Superman Returns: The Videogame, and Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure. I also (like most of the studio) got sucked into Madden X360 2006, the first third-generation (X360/PS3) version of Madden and also helped out on Madden 2008.
Much of my remaining time was spent on internal tools and tech. I worked on our UI authoring tool for a while, then on some Flash rendering stuff and other random shenanigans.
Hatsworth was, by far, the most fun project I was on. If you're curious, I wrote a document about the level editor I created for it here:
Thank you very much for answering and for sharing the document. I am currently working on my first platformer so I am eager to read everything I can find about making good platformers.
I think the content was initially written for the site using Markdown and later converted into a book. The author mentions in the book somewhere that it was written with Markdown.
Why not? Hosting is cheap and my goal isn't to maximize revenue, it's to maximize personal gratification. I get the latter from free readers as well as paid ones.
Maybe the free version cannibalizes sales, but I'm certain the book is much higher profile and reached a much larger number of potential customers because I gave (and continue to give) the web version away for free.
I would argue that providing the book content for free as a website will sell more books vs only having the for-sale version.
Especially with a niche like this, until you're an established author that people will just buy because it was written by you, people will require some sort of evidence that you know what you're talking about. Is the book worth it? Reviews are good. Better? being able to skim or read the book before buying.
Due to how temporary websites are - I think the physical copies and the ebooks are a sound purchase for people that will want to be refer to this book at some point in the future.
Looking at the data you shared, the 8,000-strong email list clearly made a major impact on the launch. How long did it take to go from 0 to 8k, and what sort of signup form or CTA did you use?
One other question: How have direct sales been on Smashwords? I don't use Smashwords (until recently, they required the title page to give special credit to Smashwords, which rubbed me the wrong way) but since they removed that requirement I have been thinking of adding it as a standalone channel for In 30 Minutes guides. I distribute directly through Amazon, Createspace, Lightning Source, iTunes/iBooks, B&N, Kobo, and a few other obscure sites (txtr and Libiro). PDFs are sold through Gumroad.
One suggestion I have for HNers who have read the book is to leave honest reviews wherever you bought it -- this can really help the long tail of sales. Amazon marks reader reviews from customers with "Verified Purchase," which gives those comments more weight in the eyes of prospective customers.