Preordering Books
How much would you honestly be willing to pay for a book about making money with blogging? I am not talking about an overview, but an actual book that cover every base in every detail? Would you be willing to preorder a book like this?
I still see people askng the same questions to the same topics and still getting all the wrong answers. I still haven’t seen a definitive resource on actually making money through multiple revenue streams online.
Is a book like this worth it to anybody?
*sidenote: As you can see Work Boxers has adapted the Whitespace design. Some of the colors may change, but nothing major. Also a couple of weeks ago I alluded to a return of major blogging by myself and if you keep track of Whitespace you can see that things have changed for the better. Same goes with this site now.
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POSTED IN: Online Money
15 opinions for Preordering Books
oscar duignan
Sep 13, 2005 at 4:16 pm
£17-£25 (maybe more) if it was a book by you and covered all the details (even the small ones) like you said then I would buy it. Is there any intent on your part to write such a book? (crosses fingers)
Scrivs
Sep 13, 2005 at 4:19 pm
What if I said yes would that make it more enticing? What if I said yes and that it might be with some other well known problogger would that make it more enticing?
oscar duignan
Sep 13, 2005 at 6:12 pm
Yes, it definately would.
Lee
Sep 13, 2005 at 6:22 pm
I think the problem with those sorts of things generally has been: why buy a book from someone you don’t know and have no idea if the ideas work. The other problem is that will the ideas still be valid when every Tom, Dick and Harry is using them.
I think some example chapters would alleviate many of the concerns, but they generally reek of get rich quick schemes.
Jacob
Sep 13, 2005 at 6:30 pm
I think this would be a great book. I had thought of doing something like a book about making money with websites in general(including blogs).
I would probably pay $20.00 for such a book.
Anthony
Sep 14, 2005 at 4:58 am
Firstly, I’ve never pre-ordered a book in my life. I buy about 15-20 books a year for myself and maybe another 5 more as gifts but would never buy a book on hype alone. I want to read enough reviews after launch to know it is worth both the outlay of my hard earned and my time.
Regarding the book topic, as much as I love blogs I wouldn’t buy a book that focuses soley on making money with blogging. Though I would buy a book about generating revenue through an online media company. I know that’s almost splitting hairs but blogging alone is too narrow for my goals and aspirations.
barry bell
Sep 14, 2005 at 9:32 am
Will one of the chapters in your book about making money with blogging be entitled “One of the best ways to make money with blogging is to write a book about making with blogging”?
Just askin’. ;o)
Actually, I’m with Anthony on this one - I’d prefer to read some reviews/excerpts/jacket notes first. Interesting idea, tho.
Brian Breslin
Sep 14, 2005 at 11:12 am
I think $20 is a reasonable fee. More than that and it will probably lose its luster. $19.99 seems like that impulse buying threshold. What I think would be interesting is an accompanying pdf copy w/search in it. And maybe the option to buy ADDITIONAL chapters as they come out (one every 3 months) for $3 a piece? That way those who buy volume 1, don’t have to shell out another $20 when volume 2 comes out a year later and all it has is an updated appendix or 1 new chapter.
(or shit make it a subscription site- $20 for one year’s access to the e-book site).
i have too many ideas… need to stop reading/commenting on blog posts and capitalize on these things myself.
beth
Sep 14, 2005 at 1:36 pm
when it comes to web related books, anything over $20-$25 seems like it would be outdated too fast to be worthwhile for me, and i’ll wait till it hits half.com or the used bookstore shelves.
Scrivs
Sep 14, 2005 at 1:52 pm
I like the site subscription idea. The book I had in mind though I think would be more than $20 because we are talking about covering all the bases here. Not just money and blogs. But yes sample chapters and stuff would have to be shown.
Ben
Sep 14, 2005 at 6:37 pm
I personally wouldn’t buy a book like this. The people writing the book learned to make money themselves, so why can’t I? I personally make enough money to cover hosting and have fun on weekends with my poker blog and I’ve only been doing it for a few months.
I wouldn’t be willing to pay more than $25 for some information that I can probably find online if I look hard enough
Mike Sigers
Sep 14, 2005 at 9:15 pm
How about this ?
Instead of pre-ordering, how about you write the book and we read it and pay you, IF we learn 1 ( one ) thing.
Are you as willing to take the chance as you ask us to be ?
If not, I’m not sure if I want to pre-order.
On the other hand, if you feel confident, maybe that will persuade me to pre-order.
BTW - I’d pay $25 or so.
Paul
Sep 15, 2005 at 4:35 am
I never pre-order books, but perhaps that’s just me.
I doubt I’d buy the kind of book you’re suggesting, unless it was really good (I’d certainly be looking for a sample chapter and/or read part of it in my local bookshop/library) or a fairly low price. It sounds like a trying to make money by telling people how to make money thing, which I’m not interested in.
Jemaleddin
Sep 15, 2005 at 9:22 am
I’m not sure about preordering, but I’d jump at the chance to buy the book in beta the way that they did Agile Web Development with Rails.
http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/rails/
For those who don’t know: they made the rough drafts available as PDFs for purchase while they were working on the final draft. You could either buy just the beta pdf, the beta pdf and the hardcopy book, or just the hardcopy book. That way everybody got to benefit: they got tons of fixes for mistakes, inconsistencies, typos and such, and users got the information they needed months early.
So: if you did that, I’d buy in a heartbeat.
Jvahead
Sep 15, 2005 at 10:15 am
I agree 100% with Jemaleddin. Offering up an electronic “Beta” for the book is a perfect carrot for potential buyers who would otherwise be hesitant to preorder a book on face value alone.
I believe someone estimated that they generated close to $50K in presales of that book.
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