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Ask HN: Advice on selling tech ebooks

4 points by palidanx 13y ago

I just finishing writing an ebook for an introduction to the architecture of Amazon Web Services. I feel like I went through a lot of pain points just to understand how their framework operated and I wanted to document those things I learned. What also helped is I had many hours of support talking with Amazon architects for them to explain the platform to me. I don't currently have any large set of tech followers or a popular tech blog. Other than putting my content up on gumroad, do any HNers have any advice on how to get started to pitch the tech book online?

gesman 13y ago
You trying to oversell something that already being stackoverflowed. I still suggest you to get ISBN for that and publish it on Amazon and get rich by presenting yourself as a cloud computing expert. No money to speak of could be made by selling tech ebook on AMZN services.
- diydsp 13y ago
  It may be a matter of experience and perspective. I only discovered AWS about 9 months ago or so and Amazon Affiliate program two months ago. I figured how to do elastic servers by hacking around, but the other services are still beyond me, especially which ones I need and how to connect them to each other. I've read lots of stack exchange posts on how to do various subtasks like installing an SVN server, but I wouldn't mind paying to read a coherent presentation introducing the most relevant AWS services for my needs. If you know of a thorough introduction to the use, caveats and good practices on AWS through stackexchange, please let this author know. So far I have only found thousands of Q & A, which is like eating ice cream with tweezers. As far as OP goes, try to find folks like me who are starting small/home office businesses in niche markets and make your book part of a larger bundle of educational material on things like mailchimp, Quickbooks, etc. Also, typical marketing for products like this is to give away the first chapter for free. Also, find blogs of people whose readers could use your ebook and write them each a personalized email saying quite simply, "I made this book. I think your readers might like it" and let them decide if they feel like writing about it. You'd be surprised how many influential people you can reach in 4-12 hours of searching for blogs and writing. Good luck! Also, I see you link to menutail in your Profile. Get a link to your gumroad up there, pronto! Get it in your sig and in your email, too. Also, start a blog in which you handle a new topic from the book in introductory depth each week. Venkatesh Rao did a good job promoting _Tempo_ this way and it can add value to the original material long after the publishing.
  - palidanx 13y ago
    Hey thanks for the feedback! I just finished my gumroad product here https://gumroad.com/l/HGlv https://gumroad.com/l/HGlv If you have any feedback, let me know and I'll update the ebook.
- palidanx 13y ago
  Imho, StackOverflow is more for asking a particular question or finding out how a nuance works. There really is no comprehensive guides on architecture on StackOverflow. Anyhoo I updated the gumroad, and I put in a preview of the first 10 pages of the book for free Gumroad: https://gumroad.com/l/HGlv https://gumroad.com/l/HGlv Free 10 page preview: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11209457/PREVIEW_Introduction%20to%20Amazon%20Web%20Services%20Platform.pdf https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11209457/PREVIEW_Introdu...

4 points by palidanx 13y ago

gesman 13y ago

You trying to oversell something that already being stackoverflowed. I still suggest you to get ISBN for that and publish it on Amazon and get rich by presenting yourself as a cloud computing expert. No money to speak of could be made by selling tech ebook on AMZN services.

diydsp 13y ago
It may be a matter of experience and perspective. I only discovered AWS about 9 months ago or so and Amazon Affiliate program two months ago. I figured how to do elastic servers by hacking around, but the other services are still beyond me, especially which ones I need and how to connect them to each other. I've read lots of stack exchange posts on how to do various subtasks like installing an SVN server, but I wouldn't mind paying to read a coherent presentation introducing the most relevant AWS services for my needs. If you know of a thorough introduction to the use, caveats and good practices on AWS through stackexchange, please let this author know. So far I have only found thousands of Q & A, which is like eating ice cream with tweezers. As far as OP goes, try to find folks like me who are starting small/home office businesses in niche markets and make your book part of a larger bundle of educational material on things like mailchimp, Quickbooks, etc. Also, typical marketing for products like this is to give away the first chapter for free. Also, find blogs of people whose readers could use your ebook and write them each a personalized email saying quite simply, "I made this book. I think your readers might like it" and let them decide if they feel like writing about it. You'd be surprised how many influential people you can reach in 4-12 hours of searching for blogs and writing. Good luck! Also, I see you link to menutail in your Profile. Get a link to your gumroad up there, pronto! Get it in your sig and in your email, too. Also, start a blog in which you handle a new topic from the book in introductory depth each week. Venkatesh Rao did a good job promoting _Tempo_ this way and it can add value to the original material long after the publishing.
- palidanx 13y ago
  Hey thanks for the feedback! I just finished my gumroad product here https://gumroad.com/l/HGlv https://gumroad.com/l/HGlv If you have any feedback, let me know and I'll update the ebook.
palidanx 13y ago
Imho, StackOverflow is more for asking a particular question or finding out how a nuance works. There really is no comprehensive guides on architecture on StackOverflow. Anyhoo I updated the gumroad, and I put in a preview of the first 10 pages of the book for free Gumroad: https://gumroad.com/l/HGlv https://gumroad.com/l/HGlv Free 10 page preview: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11209457/PREVIEW_Introduction%20to%20Amazon%20Web%20Services%20Platform.pdf https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11209457/PREVIEW_Introdu...