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It seems like the Amazon reviews might be stacked. There certainly are a ton of them popping up at 10 am this morning. Plus you can always tell a sock puppet re

It seems like the Amazon reviews might be stacked. There certainly are a ton of them popping up at 10 am this morning. Plus you can always tell a sock puppet review when they don't actually mention content and say things like "Greatest Book Evah" instead. I know it's important to appear that the book is a proven reading experience, and reviews are the essential way to do that, but fake/paid/friend reviews just raise red flags. I'm a huge fan of Priceonomics, and I would love to buy their book, but my concern is that a good portion of the book is repackaged articles. And anything that is a "heavily edited mashup" makes me cringe. "Everything Is Bullshit consists of some new essays, some of our favorite older essays, and some chapters that are heavily edited mashups of various pieces we’ve written before. If you’re a fan of our blog, we hope the new essays will be reason enough to buy the book: The Seal Clubbing Business, Why Is Art Expensive, How to Sell Nothing for $1000, The Big Lie, The World’s Most Expensive Free Credit Report, and The Food Industrial Complex. Some of our most popular essays on diamonds, taxi medallions, academic publishing, wine, colleges, and other bullshitty things also make an appearance. Some of the essays are in a different form than when we originally published them; others look mostly the same." So, with the sock puppet reviews, and the essays that "look mostly the same", they didn't convert me into a buyer. My advice: 1. Sincere pre-release reviews. Praise and criticism. 2. A clear TOC with the new stories outlined (and republished ones linked to) 3. Enroll in Kindle Match. $9 an Ebook is outside the optimum pricing range for Ebooks. (2.99-4.99) 4. Use this to build the Priceonomic brand and not as a revenue structure. Price accordingly. 5. Look at your Freakonomics and Gladwell covers. I like yours, but I don't think it's the best version you could come up with. Though I recognize that good covers are hard. Very hard. If you want my help, msg me. This, all of this, is what I do.

rohin 12y ago
Hi there, I work at Priceonomics. Thanks for the suggestions. We'll probably do a blog post about our marketing strategy of this book, but I wanted to address your point that the book had reviews as soon as it launched on Amazon. How is that even possible? Many people had advanced copies of various drafts of the book. When the book went live this morning we emailed all of them letting them know it was up there. Hence people (all of whom are regular readers of our blog and seem to like us) could review it even though the book was only just released. Hope that clears up your questions! BTW, do you have any data on the optimum pricing of an ebook being $2.99-4.99? I would love to see it.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- patcon 12y ago
  Thanks. I was assuming some fake reviews were a ironic piece of guerilla marketing :)
  - alttab 12y ago
    I can't imagine that condoning astroturfing would be good for business, either as a retailer (Amazon) or a book author.
    - beamatronic 12y ago
      Unless it's a case study for their NEXT essay
- steveklabnik 12y ago
  > BTW, do you have any data on the optimum pricing of an ebook being $2.99-4.99? I smell a new post!!!
- parasitius 12y ago
  I cannot believe that it's still friggin necessary to explain this simple fact that some people have an advanced copy of a book and so are able to put up a review right away. And what's even worse is if you have to explain this to a technical person... Jesus Thanks so much BRILLIANT GUY for enlightening us to your brilliant review fraud theory. We are all more retarded now.
- ChuckFrank 12y ago
  Ah, yes, the amazon page went live this morning. That makes sense. You may have wanted to curate, or to pull out some specific talking points for your reviewers. I think good good reviews are better than bad good reviews. But I understand the challenge. As to the pricing info. I like this post, though it's old and prices may have changed -- http://evilgeniuschronicles.org/2011/01/12/ebook-pricing-vs-revenue/ http://evilgeniuschronicles.org/2011/01/12/ebook-pricing-vs-... Here are some more current discussions. http://gigaom.com/2013/05/09/whats-the-best-price-for-a-self-published-ebook-3-99-smashwords-research-suggests/ http://gigaom.com/2013/05/09/whats-the-best-price-for-a-self... http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-can-the-average-writer-make-money-self-publishing-e-books http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-can-the-avera... (see pricing barometer above) http://boingboing.net/2014/01/16/whats-the-most-profitable-pr.html http://boingboing.net/2014/01/16/whats-the-most-profitable-p... https://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120728/19122219866/traditional-publisher-ebook-pricing-harming-authors-careers.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120728/... At 266 pages, I think you $16.95 book price is perfect. You might have even been able to push it up to $18.95 because of your brand. But being conservative, I think $6 a copy profit is good. I would have priced the Ebook at $5.95, and I would've signed up for the free matchbook service, so when you buy the book you get the ebook for free. I'd drop the DRM too. But these reviews are just stinkers: "I was taught to question everything when I was in school and have practiced that ever since. Everything Is Bulls* is a fine example of that. Love it!" & "Love it! Rohin and the guys really put together a fantastic book. They did a great job using stories to explain the concepts. Very engaging - I highly recommend!" Because, you don't actually use 'stories' to explain concepts. You use data. And his 'questioning everything' isn't really the gist of your work. You don't question everything, you examine some things in great detail. Still, congratulations. I think that your marketing/content/service structure is really the future. Instead of you wanting to be bigger than the NYT, I could see the NYT following your model - if they could build a service structure that isolates it from the content structure. Who knows. Even Porlandia wadded in on the topic. http://www.newscastic.com/news/did-portlandia-show-us-the-future-of-journalism-62509/ http://www.newscastic.com/news/did-portlandia-show-us-the-fu... *Note -- Charlize Theron NSFW (not actually it's part of the joke)
hkmurakami 12y ago
As far as I know, Eric Reis' "Lean Startup" book was largely a repackage of his blog posts, but that didn't stop it from being a success. Then again, much like you, as an avid reader of the original blog, I did not pick up a copy ;)
thret 12y ago
Addressing your concern about 'repackaged articles', the 'Hyperbole and a Half' book was in the same situation. I really just bought it to support the blog, but I really enjoyed reading it. Even when though you've read half the content before, the distance of a few years and the feel of paper make it an enjoyable experience. Plus I've been able to loan it out to a few friends who wouldn't otherwise go and read through a few years of blog posts. I will be buying this book too and I expect the same enjoyment. If only I had a pleasant, crackling fire!

rohin 12y ago

Hi there, I work at Priceonomics. Thanks for the suggestions. We'll probably do a blog post about our marketing strategy of this book, but I wanted to address your point that the book had reviews as soon as it launched on Amazon. How is that even possible? Many people had advanced copies of various drafts of the book. When the book went live this morning we emailed all of them letting them know it was up there. Hence people (all of whom are regular readers of our blog and seem to like us) could review it even though the book was only just released. Hope that clears up your questions! BTW, do you have any data on the optimum pricing of an ebook being $2.99-4.99? I would love to see it.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
patcon 12y ago
Thanks. I was assuming some fake reviews were a ironic piece of guerilla marketing :)
- alttab 12y ago
  I can't imagine that condoning astroturfing would be good for business, either as a retailer (Amazon) or a book author.
  - beamatronic 12y ago
    Unless it's a case study for their NEXT essay
steveklabnik 12y ago
> BTW, do you have any data on the optimum pricing of an ebook being $2.99-4.99? I smell a new post!!!
parasitius 12y ago
I cannot believe that it's still friggin necessary to explain this simple fact that some people have an advanced copy of a book and so are able to put up a review right away. And what's even worse is if you have to explain this to a technical person... Jesus Thanks so much BRILLIANT GUY for enlightening us to your brilliant review fraud theory. We are all more retarded now.
ChuckFrank 12y ago
Ah, yes, the amazon page went live this morning. That makes sense. You may have wanted to curate, or to pull out some specific talking points for your reviewers. I think good good reviews are better than bad good reviews. But I understand the challenge. As to the pricing info. I like this post, though it's old and prices may have changed -- http://evilgeniuschronicles.org/2011/01/12/ebook-pricing-vs-revenue/ http://evilgeniuschronicles.org/2011/01/12/ebook-pricing-vs-... Here are some more current discussions. http://gigaom.com/2013/05/09/whats-the-best-price-for-a-self-published-ebook-3-99-smashwords-research-suggests/ http://gigaom.com/2013/05/09/whats-the-best-price-for-a-self... http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-can-the-average-writer-make-money-self-publishing-e-books http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-can-the-avera... (see pricing barometer above) http://boingboing.net/2014/01/16/whats-the-most-profitable-pr.html http://boingboing.net/2014/01/16/whats-the-most-profitable-p... https://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120728/19122219866/traditional-publisher-ebook-pricing-harming-authors-careers.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120728/... At 266 pages, I think you $16.95 book price is perfect. You might have even been able to push it up to $18.95 because of your brand. But being conservative, I think $6 a copy profit is good. I would have priced the Ebook at $5.95, and I would've signed up for the free matchbook service, so when you buy the book you get the ebook for free. I'd drop the DRM too. But these reviews are just stinkers: "I was taught to question everything when I was in school and have practiced that ever since. Everything Is Bulls* is a fine example of that. Love it!" & "Love it! Rohin and the guys really put together a fantastic book. They did a great job using stories to explain the concepts. Very engaging - I highly recommend!" Because, you don't actually use 'stories' to explain concepts. You use data. And his 'questioning everything' isn't really the gist of your work. You don't question everything, you examine some things in great detail. Still, congratulations. I think that your marketing/content/service structure is really the future. Instead of you wanting to be bigger than the NYT, I could see the NYT following your model - if they could build a service structure that isolates it from the content structure. Who knows. Even Porlandia wadded in on the topic. http://www.newscastic.com/news/did-portlandia-show-us-the-future-of-journalism-62509/ http://www.newscastic.com/news/did-portlandia-show-us-the-fu... *Note -- Charlize Theron NSFW (not actually it's part of the joke)

hkmurakami 12y ago

As far as I know, Eric Reis' "Lean Startup" book was largely a repackage of his blog posts, but that didn't stop it from being a success. Then again, much like you, as an avid reader of the original blog, I did not pick up a copy ;)

thret 12y ago

Addressing your concern about 'repackaged articles', the 'Hyperbole and a Half' book was in the same situation. I really just bought it to support the blog, but I really enjoyed reading it. Even when though you've read half the content before, the distance of a few years and the feel of paper make it an enjoyable experience. Plus I've been able to loan it out to a few friends who wouldn't otherwise go and read through a few years of blog posts. I will be buying this book too and I expect the same enjoyment. If only I had a pleasant, crackling fire!