3 ms·
One of the inspirations for writing this book in the first place was reading some of the 'Show HN' experiences over the years of other self-published authors, s
by geerlingguy 6y ago
One of the inspirations for writing this book in the first place was reading some of the 'Show HN' experiences over the years of other self-published authors, so thanks for that!
Something I am still annoyed by is the way editions work with traditional publishers and with Amazon—even if you update the content of a book on Amazon, it remains at the old published date for your first version of the book, with no way to change that.
So you pretty much have to use editions to alert readers the content of your book is not outdated. But doing so incurs the cost of giving up store rankings, reviews, etc., effectively resetting your book to 'zero' on Amazon.
Am I missing something in that process or is that just how it is for 2nd editions? It seems like I'm going to have to spend some time trying to get people to purchase the 2nd edition copy, review it, link to it, etc. to be able to get it to show up in search results with similar rankings to my 1st edition.
- loktarogar 6y agoJust watching your youtube stuff on Pi Clusters today. Thanks for all the work!
- guiambros 6y agoCongrats Jeff! Pretty awesome to see a 2nd edition; just got one. Thank you for all the work you do (and hope you're feeling better).
- marvindanig 6y ago> …Something I am still annoyed by is the way editions work with traditional publishers and with Amazon. I created a pair of tools [1][2] to address exactly this issue, but I kinda left developing it midway. One way to solve this issue is by publishing your manuscript like a website. I know that while it solves the issue of releasing the most updated edition/version of your book, it probably does not exactly solve the perception held by the readers of 'what is a book' vs. a website–and therefore, only a few would be willing to pay you for it. The other solution, imo, is to bring a book-like experience on the web, but that is a whole another beast altogether. [1] https://github.com/bookiza/bookiza.cli https://github.com/bookiza/bookiza.cli [2] https://bubblin.io https://bubblin.io
- robfitz 6y agoKDP phone support is shockingly helpful. I call them frequently and they're often able to accomplish stuff for me which doesn't have any sort of DIY interface. I call them at least once a month for something or other and am always impressed. One of my friends just released a new edition and was able to it up and set the new version as canonical, which preserved the ratings, reviews, etc. I haven't done it myself and may be muddling the details, but I'd definitely call KDP support before throwing in the towel.
- geerlingguy 6y agoThanks, I’ll give this a try!
- felbane 6y agoLet us know how it goes! Other aspiring self-published authors are dying to know.