7 ms·

First off, congrats! I can only imagine what a good feeling it is to publish a book (let alone two, as it appears you wrote a Ruby book as well.) I'm going to

by jmduke 13y ago

First off, congrats! I can only imagine what a good feeling it is to publish a book (let alone two, as it appears you wrote a Ruby book as well.) I'm going to offer some friendly criticism on marketing. (I can't really comment on the content of the book, given that I haven't read it.) - Invest $50 and buy a nice Wordpress theme off of ThemeForest, because junior software engineers are picky folk. If it nets you two more sales, then it's already paid itself off. - The table of contents tells me what I'm going to learn from this book, not why I want to learn them. Often, the answer to "why" is either "to make a lot more money" or "to build a lot of cool things I wouldn't otherwise." The three points you outline underneath the ToC hit those aspects much more strongly, so I'd move those above the fold. - Throwing up an email list where you send me some snippets and then try to upsell me is advised. I haven't heard of you before, so I'd prefer some credentials before I commit to a purchase (remember, I'm a junior software engineer, so both time and money are scarce resources.) Testimonials would also be helpful here. - There's nothing wrong with a second call to action at the bottom of the page.

tommi 13y ago
Good comments! And congratulations as well. > Invest $50 and buy a nice Wordpress theme off of ThemeForest, because junior software engineers are picky folk. If it nets you two more sales, then it's already paid itself off. Second this! Being a software engineer is so much more than writing efficient algorithms. It's also about beautiful design in many ways. Average website design gives a feeling it could correlate to average design in other fields.
- jrockway 13y ago
  Average website design gives a feeling it could correlate to average design in other fields. I couldn't disagree more. I personally see no correlation between the design of his site and his software engineering ability. It's like saying you don't trust that engineer to design a bridge because the ring he's wearing is all jagged along the edges. What?
  - joshuacc 13y ago
    While I agree that there isn't necessarily an actual correlation, better visual design can make the content seem more trustworthy.
  - tommi 13y ago
    Yes, I would get that feeling, if I knew that the ring was designed by the same engineer designing the bridge. If you set out to do a book well, you also want to promote it as best as you can. Average website here raises the question why it's average. There isn't necessarily a correlation. I am talking about the feeling the website gives.
  - semiel 13y ago
    One of the primary traits of a good developer is a strong desire for excellence. If a developer is willing to settle for a mediocre and boring design, then that is some (perhaps small) evidence that the book may contain mediocre and boring content. Anecdotally: At the TechWeek Chicago job fair, there was a very high correlation between booths with good logos and graphic design and interesting people behind the booth. All of my good conversations were with people at the well designed booths. EDIT: This is especially true since we are expected to pay for the book before we get access to it. This means that we cannot judge its quality in any holistic way, but must do our best to pre-judge its quality through various social signals.
    - pc86 13y ago
      I tend to agree with you, but it's possible the places with budgets to allow for high-quality graphic design and production (let alone conference attendance) also have budgets that allow for the salaries high-quality people often demand.
    - jrs99 13y ago
      I personally go for things that have bad design. Like slackware linux. I associate bad graphic design with great software. I love seeing a great science fiction novel wrapped in a generic illustrated cover. It seems more quirky and personal to me. I think good design can be bought, so I distrust it. I really hate it when the packaging is slick, with a perfect logo, and a perfect website, but the product is terrible. Like you were fooled into buying it. It happens more often to me these days because good graphic design can be bought, or copy-pasted.
- fecak 13y ago
  GitHub pages provides free hosting for something like this, some templates, and with some fairly simple changes in Markdown and CSS you could have this up relatively quickly.
- jot 13y ago
  Beautiful design is an optimisation. It's far better to ship the book now and add the design later than it is to hold off shipping the book because the design isn't yet good enough for a subset of potential customers.
pallandt 13y ago
Agreed on the advice for better presentation, but running WordPress for the single benefit of displaying one single landing page is overkill. He could just get a free Bootstrap theme from http://bootswatch.com/ http://bootswatch.com/ or buy a landing page template specifically made for books/ebooks from somewhere else.
LocalPCGuy 13y ago
Rather than buy a (most likely) generic template on WordPress, since the site is a single page, take the first 10 or 20 sales and invest that money in paying a designer to design that single page site as good as possible for further conversions. Also, don't link in the same tab to your blog posts, you are taking people away from the chance to purchase, and they will typically not be back (there is probably a little higher chance because the market is developers that they will remember to come back and purchase). You should at a minimum, open the links in a new tab. I definitely second the email list, sit down and write up 52(? more/less?) short "tips" and put people that sign up on an autoresponder that emails out every week, that includes a way to come back and purchase in each email. Obviously leave a way to unsubscribe, and keep track of who purchases and put people who have purchased on a slightly different list (can still send the tips, just don't push the sale anymore).
- Chico75 13y ago
  On the other hand, it's quite annoying to have a website opening links in new tabs when you don't want it to, that would make it less likely for me to come back on the original site to purchase the book after that.
- lmartel 13y ago
  An email list is a great idea, but please don't open links in a new tab. Opening a new tab breaks the "back" button, which makes it harder to get back to your page, not easier. If people want to come back to your site they'll come back; trying to force them to keep your site open will not work and will not sell your product. On a more positive note I liked the excerpts (especially the part on interviewing) and will likely buy the book!
themodelplumber 13y ago
I'm a designer who periodically works with ThemeForest themes for my clients. The problem with most of the themes is that they look good but you realize how badly they really work only when you attempt to adapt a site to them. I believe the author's current design is clean, functional, and honest. It won't win any awards, sure. There are some immediate issues with design elements needing a bit more space in which to live. But IMO the most improvement the author can make right now is to improve the book cover. That is practically lost territory compared to the rest of the site's large text and easily-followed bullet points. I recognized the image to the left as a book cover only on my third website view.
- pbowyer 13y ago
  > I'm a designer who periodically works with ThemeForest themes for my clients. The problem with most of the themes is that they look good but you realize how badly they really work only when you attempt to adapt a site to them. Completely agree. They (and themes from other sites, and rather too many open source themes) have been designed with no thought of customising beyond the options on the "Options" page, have badly structured templates and CSS, and rely on graphics in such a way that changing the look of one part has a knock-on effect on others, and needs extensive CSS rewrites. Rant over. TLDR: themes are great if you use them as-is.

by jmduke 13y ago

tommi 13y ago

Good comments! And congratulations as well. > Invest $50 and buy a nice Wordpress theme off of ThemeForest, because junior software engineers are picky folk. If it nets you two more sales, then it's already paid itself off. Second this! Being a software engineer is so much more than writing efficient algorithms. It's also about beautiful design in many ways. Average website design gives a feeling it could correlate to average design in other fields.

jrockway 13y ago
Average website design gives a feeling it could correlate to average design in other fields. I couldn't disagree more. I personally see no correlation between the design of his site and his software engineering ability. It's like saying you don't trust that engineer to design a bridge because the ring he's wearing is all jagged along the edges. What?
- joshuacc 13y ago
  While I agree that there isn't necessarily an actual correlation, better visual design can make the content seem more trustworthy.
- tommi 13y ago
  Yes, I would get that feeling, if I knew that the ring was designed by the same engineer designing the bridge. If you set out to do a book well, you also want to promote it as best as you can. Average website here raises the question why it's average. There isn't necessarily a correlation. I am talking about the feeling the website gives.
- semiel 13y ago
  One of the primary traits of a good developer is a strong desire for excellence. If a developer is willing to settle for a mediocre and boring design, then that is some (perhaps small) evidence that the book may contain mediocre and boring content. Anecdotally: At the TechWeek Chicago job fair, there was a very high correlation between booths with good logos and graphic design and interesting people behind the booth. All of my good conversations were with people at the well designed booths. EDIT: This is especially true since we are expected to pay for the book before we get access to it. This means that we cannot judge its quality in any holistic way, but must do our best to pre-judge its quality through various social signals.
  - pc86 13y ago
    I tend to agree with you, but it's possible the places with budgets to allow for high-quality graphic design and production (let alone conference attendance) also have budgets that allow for the salaries high-quality people often demand.
  - jrs99 13y ago
    I personally go for things that have bad design. Like slackware linux. I associate bad graphic design with great software. I love seeing a great science fiction novel wrapped in a generic illustrated cover. It seems more quirky and personal to me. I think good design can be bought, so I distrust it. I really hate it when the packaging is slick, with a perfect logo, and a perfect website, but the product is terrible. Like you were fooled into buying it. It happens more often to me these days because good graphic design can be bought, or copy-pasted.
fecak 13y ago
GitHub pages provides free hosting for something like this, some templates, and with some fairly simple changes in Markdown and CSS you could have this up relatively quickly.
jot 13y ago
Beautiful design is an optimisation. It's far better to ship the book now and add the design later than it is to hold off shipping the book because the design isn't yet good enough for a subset of potential customers.

pallandt 13y ago

Agreed on the advice for better presentation, but running WordPress for the single benefit of displaying one single landing page is overkill. He could just get a free Bootstrap theme from http://bootswatch.com/ http://bootswatch.com/ or buy a landing page template specifically made for books/ebooks from somewhere else.

LocalPCGuy 13y ago

Rather than buy a (most likely) generic template on WordPress, since the site is a single page, take the first 10 or 20 sales and invest that money in paying a designer to design that single page site as good as possible for further conversions. Also, don't link in the same tab to your blog posts, you are taking people away from the chance to purchase, and they will typically not be back (there is probably a little higher chance because the market is developers that they will remember to come back and purchase). You should at a minimum, open the links in a new tab. I definitely second the email list, sit down and write up 52(? more/less?) short "tips" and put people that sign up on an autoresponder that emails out every week, that includes a way to come back and purchase in each email. Obviously leave a way to unsubscribe, and keep track of who purchases and put people who have purchased on a slightly different list (can still send the tips, just don't push the sale anymore).

Chico75 13y ago
On the other hand, it's quite annoying to have a website opening links in new tabs when you don't want it to, that would make it less likely for me to come back on the original site to purchase the book after that.
lmartel 13y ago
An email list is a great idea, but please don't open links in a new tab. Opening a new tab breaks the "back" button, which makes it harder to get back to your page, not easier. If people want to come back to your site they'll come back; trying to force them to keep your site open will not work and will not sell your product. On a more positive note I liked the excerpts (especially the part on interviewing) and will likely buy the book!

themodelplumber 13y ago

I'm a designer who periodically works with ThemeForest themes for my clients. The problem with most of the themes is that they look good but you realize how badly they really work only when you attempt to adapt a site to them. I believe the author's current design is clean, functional, and honest. It won't win any awards, sure. There are some immediate issues with design elements needing a bit more space in which to live. But IMO the most improvement the author can make right now is to improve the book cover. That is practically lost territory compared to the rest of the site's large text and easily-followed bullet points. I recognized the image to the left as a book cover only on my third website view.

pbowyer 13y ago
> I'm a designer who periodically works with ThemeForest themes for my clients. The problem with most of the themes is that they look good but you realize how badly they really work only when you attempt to adapt a site to them. Completely agree. They (and themes from other sites, and rather too many open source themes) have been designed with no thought of customising beyond the options on the "Options" page, have badly structured templates and CSS, and rely on graphics in such a way that changing the look of one part has a knock-on effect on others, and needs extensive CSS rewrites. Rant over. TLDR: themes are great if you use them as-is.