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If the information in the book (regardless of page count) gives you insight into a new technology that you can use to expand your career, is $30 really too much

If the information in the book (regardless of page count) gives you insight into a new technology that you can use to expand your career, is $30 really too much? If you're a contractor billing at market rates in SF, $30 is one-third to one-fifth of a single hour's income. Time to start valuing books based on knowledge contained rather than paper weight.

laughfactory 13y ago
IF the information contained is proven to be valuable and well-expressed than yes, I agree, $39 (or even $99 or whatever) is totally worth it when the expertise derived pays off. BUT, for an unknown quantity it's still steep. There are plenty of poorly written tech books not really worth the "paper" they're printed on. So asking people to pony-up that kind of money is a little shocking. It might be better to provide (as they have) a sample chapter, and then split the book in parts. Then each part could be $X (say, $12?) which allows people to pay a smaller amount, ascertain the value the book provides and then shell out the full amount. People are price-sensitive. Their expectations--derived from pricing observed for similar books--is that a book's "retail" price would be somewhere between $20-$30. A book that's nearly $40 is almost unheard of. Additionally, this is especially true for "self-published" books. We expect them to be cheaper because their distribution/production costs are cheaper (or at least we perceive them to be cheaper) and we acknowledge that often self-published books don't have expensive, but quality-assuring, intermediates like editors. In other words, a self-published book is a much greater unknown quantity than one from a publisher which has been edited etc. Plenty of books from publishers suck, but an even greater proportion of self-published books suck.
- publicfig 13y ago
  I feel as though it is fair to note here that if you are not satisfied with this book, you are able to get a full refund for it. $39 may still be too much for a speculative buyer, but at least you aren't throwing away money if it's not up to your standards
- scott_s 13y ago
  Asking $30 for a book is shocking? I expect to pay at least that for a good technical book. This is a book I paid $60 for: http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Programming-Interface-System-Handbook/dp/1593272200 http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Programming-Interface-System-Han... I did so because the information in it is relevant to my job, it's unlikely to change in a significant way over the next decade, and I was tired of not having a single place to look up Linux systems stuff. If I was a web developer using Meteor, I imagine I would come to a similar conclusion about this book - with the exception that because it's online, the authors can update it over time.
  - ruswick 13y ago
    "Asking $30 for a book is shocking?" Where did you get that? He explicitly said that "if the information contained is proven to be valuable and well-expressed than yes, I agree, $39 (or even $99 or whatever) is totally worth it." He literally said the exact opposite of what you are alleging that he said. Literally. His shock was in regards to the fact that the offer no sample chapter (which they probably should).
    - scott_s 13y ago
      I got it from: "So asking people to pony-up that kind of money is a little shocking." I was confused by his phrasing. I thought he meant it was an unknown quantity because he had not read it.
      - laughfactory 13y ago
        Now I'm getting confused. I agree that it was an unknown quantity before I began reading it. The main point I was attempting to make is that some of those (perhaps a very small minority) interested in learning Meteor operate on very tight budgets. On a good month I get a $50 "allowance." Most months I don't get an allowance. This month my wife agreed to take the cost of the Discover Meteor book out of our grocery budget. So when things are that tight, $30 or $40 is a lot to swing. It's roughly 10% of our grocery budget (for context). For those who make their living as web developers and have sufficient disposable income, I'm sure the asking price of $39 isn't a problem.
ruswick 13y ago
"If you're a contractor billing at market rates in SF, $30 is one-third to one-fifth of a single hour's income." The issue is that the overwhelming majority of technical people don't live in SF, nor will they ever earn SF rates. It's absurd that people insist on projecting the economic situation of an incomprehensibly small subset of programmers that are lucky enough to reside in a hot market onto the entire cohort of developers. Most people don't make $100 per hour, and even if they do, other aspects of life are quite expensive (car, house, school). I don't understand why people can't comprehend that some people make modest salaries or don't have limitless disposable income. $30 isn't necessarily the world (and many people will certainly receive positive value), but it's still a hefty expense that requires one to gauge value. Asserting that someone is wrong to be hesitant about buying the book is presumptuous. People buy things based on cost, and strive to preserve their money and maximize value. What is so upsetting about that?
- laughfactory 13y ago
  @ruswick I agree. You said what I was attempting to say with a great deal more clarity. Nearly $40 is a lot for an unknown quantity for someone like me who is convinced that Meteor is a big deal, but who is also learning web development from the ground-up. And yes, I should probably start with something a little easier for a beginner to rap their head around. But there really are people like me out there who are interested in learning Meteor for whom $39 (or $30) represents a lot of money. I'm a grad student, working part-time for $14/hour, with a homemaker wife and baby. My allowance, when I can get it, is $50 a month. Yep, that's how some of us roll. So maybe sharing that sheds some light on how and why someone (like me) might be price sensitive--even when it seems ridiculous to others who make a LOT more money. That said, after getting the expense approved by my wife, I did actually take advantage of the $30 launch list price and am currently working my way through the book. The first 28 pages have been worthwhile. I like that, similar to the Hartl Rails Tutorial, it attempts to cover the whole development life cyle including deploying locally, to Meteor, to Heroku, and to EC2, etc. For beginners like me who really crave learning about the whole process, this is a boon.

laughfactory 13y ago

IF the information contained is proven to be valuable and well-expressed than yes, I agree, $39 (or even $99 or whatever) is totally worth it when the expertise derived pays off. BUT, for an unknown quantity it's still steep. There are plenty of poorly written tech books not really worth the "paper" they're printed on. So asking people to pony-up that kind of money is a little shocking. It might be better to provide (as they have) a sample chapter, and then split the book in parts. Then each part could be $X (say, $12?) which allows people to pay a smaller amount, ascertain the value the book provides and then shell out the full amount. People are price-sensitive. Their expectations--derived from pricing observed for similar books--is that a book's "retail" price would be somewhere between $20-$30. A book that's nearly $40 is almost unheard of. Additionally, this is especially true for "self-published" books. We expect them to be cheaper because their distribution/production costs are cheaper (or at least we perceive them to be cheaper) and we acknowledge that often self-published books don't have expensive, but quality-assuring, intermediates like editors. In other words, a self-published book is a much greater unknown quantity than one from a publisher which has been edited etc. Plenty of books from publishers suck, but an even greater proportion of self-published books suck.

publicfig 13y ago
I feel as though it is fair to note here that if you are not satisfied with this book, you are able to get a full refund for it. $39 may still be too much for a speculative buyer, but at least you aren't throwing away money if it's not up to your standards
scott_s 13y ago
Asking $30 for a book is shocking? I expect to pay at least that for a good technical book. This is a book I paid $60 for: http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Programming-Interface-System-Handbook/dp/1593272200 http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Programming-Interface-System-Han... I did so because the information in it is relevant to my job, it's unlikely to change in a significant way over the next decade, and I was tired of not having a single place to look up Linux systems stuff. If I was a web developer using Meteor, I imagine I would come to a similar conclusion about this book - with the exception that because it's online, the authors can update it over time.
- ruswick 13y ago
  "Asking $30 for a book is shocking?" Where did you get that? He explicitly said that "if the information contained is proven to be valuable and well-expressed than yes, I agree, $39 (or even $99 or whatever) is totally worth it." He literally said the exact opposite of what you are alleging that he said. Literally. His shock was in regards to the fact that the offer no sample chapter (which they probably should).
  - scott_s 13y ago
    I got it from: "So asking people to pony-up that kind of money is a little shocking." I was confused by his phrasing. I thought he meant it was an unknown quantity because he had not read it.
    - laughfactory 13y ago
      Now I'm getting confused. I agree that it was an unknown quantity before I began reading it. The main point I was attempting to make is that some of those (perhaps a very small minority) interested in learning Meteor operate on very tight budgets. On a good month I get a $50 "allowance." Most months I don't get an allowance. This month my wife agreed to take the cost of the Discover Meteor book out of our grocery budget. So when things are that tight, $30 or $40 is a lot to swing. It's roughly 10% of our grocery budget (for context). For those who make their living as web developers and have sufficient disposable income, I'm sure the asking price of $39 isn't a problem.

ruswick 13y ago

"If you're a contractor billing at market rates in SF, $30 is one-third to one-fifth of a single hour's income." The issue is that the overwhelming majority of technical people don't live in SF, nor will they ever earn SF rates. It's absurd that people insist on projecting the economic situation of an incomprehensibly small subset of programmers that are lucky enough to reside in a hot market onto the entire cohort of developers. Most people don't make $100 per hour, and even if they do, other aspects of life are quite expensive (car, house, school). I don't understand why people can't comprehend that some people make modest salaries or don't have limitless disposable income. $30 isn't necessarily the world (and many people will certainly receive positive value), but it's still a hefty expense that requires one to gauge value. Asserting that someone is wrong to be hesitant about buying the book is presumptuous. People buy things based on cost, and strive to preserve their money and maximize value. What is so upsetting about that?

laughfactory 13y ago
@ruswick I agree. You said what I was attempting to say with a great deal more clarity. Nearly $40 is a lot for an unknown quantity for someone like me who is convinced that Meteor is a big deal, but who is also learning web development from the ground-up. And yes, I should probably start with something a little easier for a beginner to rap their head around. But there really are people like me out there who are interested in learning Meteor for whom $39 (or $30) represents a lot of money. I'm a grad student, working part-time for $14/hour, with a homemaker wife and baby. My allowance, when I can get it, is $50 a month. Yep, that's how some of us roll. So maybe sharing that sheds some light on how and why someone (like me) might be price sensitive--even when it seems ridiculous to others who make a LOT more money. That said, after getting the expense approved by my wife, I did actually take advantage of the $30 launch list price and am currently working my way through the book. The first 28 pages have been worthwhile. I like that, similar to the Hartl Rails Tutorial, it attempts to cover the whole development life cyle including deploying locally, to Meteor, to Heroku, and to EC2, etc. For beginners like me who really crave learning about the whole process, this is a boon.