Everything Is Bullshit: A Book by Priceonomics
priceonomics.com
priceonomics.com
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.
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.
I smell a new post!!!
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-...
Here are some more current discussions.
http://gigaom.com/2013/05/09/whats-the-best-price-for-a-self...
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-can-the-avera...
(see pricing barometer above)
http://boingboing.net/2014/01/16/whats-the-most-profitable-p...
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-fu...
*Note -- Charlize Theron NSFW (not actually it's part of the joke)
In fairness, some of the Priceonomics posts are more overtly "story" driven, and even a fair number of the data-driven pieces involve interesting stories as framing devices. Using data to explain and analyze is the primary mission, but presenting that analysis in a compelling way is at least half the battle.
I have been fortunate enough to have written a few pieces for the Priceonomics blog. I don't speak for the company, and my impressions are my own $0.02... But if anything, my experience was that they'd ask me to tone myself down if I was getting too dry, too wonky, or too data-centric. The data needs to be there, as it needs to ground the analysis. But there should be a story behind it, too.
A big reason why Priceonomics' blog is so good is that it's not just a data dump. The team there has a very strong editorial focus. Believe me; there were some articles I wrote where we'd hop in a Google Doc and collaboratively edit for days and days on end, searching for the right narrative thread. Or the right way to phrase something. Or the best way to break wonky topics into approachable pieces, while still maintaining intellectual depth. I'd consider their editorial process to be at least as rigorous as that of any national publication I've written for.
"Questioning everything" seems a little much; I'd agree. It's not so much about "questioning everything" as it is peeling back the layers, and understanding why certain things are the way they are. Oftentimes, peeling back the layers of an industry -- diamonds, wine, etc. -- reveals a healthy amount of bullshit. Hence, "X is bullshit" is a semi-recurring theme in the blog. The beauty of it, IMO, is not just calling out bullshit -- but using it as the starting point, and explaining how bullshit works in specific contexts, and why it exists.
Why the book? Why Priceonomics? Because this ^^^^
Well done.
Seems like you cherry-picked who got the advanced copies...
Then again, much like you, as an avid reader of the original blog, I did not pick up a copy ;)
I will be buying this book too and I expect the same enjoyment. If only I had a pleasant, crackling fire!
free web stuff and sell books
I'm not sure this will work for journalism, but for a lot of other types of content (ahm... hm.... textbooks), it's going to work for sure. The questions are: (1) what kind of reading is better done in book-sized chunks, and (2) how to decide which content goes into the free stuff and how much into the paid book.
The OPs are using the improved blog posts + new content equation, which has never been tried before. It will be very interesting to watch.
Could you show me examples of Webcomics and/or Webcomics for sale? Are they in print or PDF? I'd be interested to check their pricing models.
Some of these, like the xkcd and the DinosaurComics books, are repackaged webcomics, some of those are 'originals' that didn't appear online before.
The publisher varies between books - the xkcd book for example was published by breadpig: http://breadpig.com/products/xkcd-volume-0
You're right, this is not a new model per se, but it's becoming more mainstream.
What fascinates me is the power of print-on-demand because it allows anyone to easily get into the book business. If Gutenberg's invention of technology giving people access to books was a revolution, it would make sense that technology that gives people access to printing presses is also going to cause a stir.
(I keep a notebook of links to articles about the book business here spundge.com/notebook/6774/ , in case anyone is interested.)
Nothing new in that business model. I have seen several popular bloggers do the exact same thing way before this initiative. That's natural : build your audience through a free service, then monetize goods targeted to this audience.
HackNews -> Amazon -> Paypal -> Gmail (confirmation) in less then 1 minute.
"I hope everyone reads this book and learns about the cruel business of selling pets." - Bowser, a dog
"I can confirm I make money - making you feel bad about yourself." - Marketing Executive
"We've finally been bested in the battle for best book with 'onomics' in the title." - Freakonomics
"Buying this book was the best decision I ever made." - You, in the Future
"I didn't really care for this book." - Your Childhood Nemesis
"You know what the world needs? Another book." - Priceonomics Middle Management
"Under no circumstances should anyone read this book." - CEO of De Beers
"Finally, a book that helps me steal bicycles more efficiently!" - Bike Thief
"Nutella really is healthy. Hahaha, I can't even say that with a straight face." - Food Industry Lobbyist
"An intellectual tour de force of staggering proportions - Priceonomics" - Winston Churchill
"After reading this book, I think I was duped into knighting a scoundrel." - The Queen of England
"No this book is not tax deductible. Why would you even ask that?" - Your Accountant
"Any press is good press, right?" - Actual Seal Clubbers
"With my endorsement, this book will reach the tipping point before you blink." - Galcolm Madwell
"Until this book, I had no idea why people started calling me Chilean Sea Bass." - An Arctic Toothfish
"Mandatory reading at the Zoolander Center for Children Who Can't Read Good!" - D. Zoolander
"Do not buy this book. Contains almost no practical information about bullshit or manure." - Farmer
"Yes, the oligarchy needs something to spend its money on. " - Art Dealer
"Finally, a book that passes judgement on my life's work!" - A Bordeaux Winemaker
"You mean I wasted all my savings on a diamond ring?" - Dudes Everywhere
"Can I interest anyone in a 'free' credit report? Lol." - The Experian Corporation
"Of course pizza is a vegetable! Don't listen to those troublemakers at Priceonomics." - US Congress
"Finally a book I can enthusiastically give two thumbs up!" - Friedrich Nietzsche
"I only read the title, but I entirely disagree with everything in this book." - Internet Commenter
"I only read the title, but I entirely agree with everything in this book." - Internet Commenter
http://priceonomics.com/introducing-the-priceonomics-busines...
[1]: http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/17/home-depot-acquires-data-dr...
https://www.paypalobjects.com/webstatic/i/logo/rebrand/ppcom...
One side of the fence, you have all this publicly accessible information, so it's like.. why not? Anyone can obtain it. Why should you be restricted?
Then on the other side you have companies who will place all sorts of legal restrictions, TOS/EULAs, etc to prevent against web scraping; sending out cease & desists and even sometimes going as far as taking someone to court.
What's the best + safest approach here for a company like Priceonomics?
Like Google?
By that I mean companies who think their data shouldn't be publicly available and also fail to place a no-crawl flag in their robots.txt.
Yelp, LinkedIn, and Craigslist are examples that have taken legal action recently against other entities scraping and re-purposing the data.
The Economics of Writing a Book, by Carter Phipps http://priceonomics.com/can-authors-make-money-selling-books...
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.I always buy with Kindle and convert with Calibre then read in iBooks. It'd be nice not to have to do that.
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Hitler%2CJesus...
EDIT: Maybe you can use that topic for an upcoming blog post.
PS the reason you're being downvoted is most likely because you prefaced your comment with "I know my karma is going to get nuked, but...". That's very Redditesque and is usually not tolerated.
I don't want my 9-year-old to be exposed to this kind of language either on the coffee table or on the tablet, so I won't be buying the book.
Could you put out a PG-rated version for those of us prudish and old-fashioned types?
Could it be that some people have different points of view on language usage around their kids?
Source: Not a dad.
The simplest solution is to not acquire the book.
Could you explain a bit about this? Is this an American thing? Two different online advertisement platforms refused to place ads for my book because of the "swear word" in the title. I didn't get it...
To me bullshit isn't a swear word at all... except for the unpleasant graphical nature of reference, I would classify it totally in a different category from other swear words. It like a strong version of "crap" ... as in what kind of crap is this?
Either you kid will learn the word from you (instead of their peers) and gain more knowledge, or they'll just mentally shrug and think "What the _, I'm nine and my dad thinks I don't know bullshit!"
Just don't act horrified when you're asked. That will fascinate your kids to no end.
Source(?): I have a 8-year-old daughter. (Hopefully she doesn't know what is 'bullshit' yet... but what's the big deal?)
Of course, I know that my child is being exposed to this kind of language in the schoolyard and in the media. She's heard me accidentally say it in earshot a few times, for Pete's sake.
I just consider it a coarse and low class way of expressing oneself. I know she'll eventually be teaching me swear words I've never even heard. I know she'll privately be speaking that way amongst her friends and peers. I know it's in literature and essays that she'll be reading.
I just find it distasteful to hear a young child speak that way, and I find it offensive to hear an adult talk that way in front of a young child. It's how I was raised, how nearly everyone in my generation was raised.
Look, if one of these kids, who thinks it's cool to put words like "Fuck" and "Bullshit" in the title of a blog or e-book, were to walk into a five star restaurant that requires fancy attire and start dropping the F-bomb, they'd be asked to leave or at a minimum generate some annoyance and disruption.
But they wouldn't speak that way in a five star restaurant, nor would they walk into a day care center and speak that way, nor would they curse in front of a neighbor's young children. Why? Because they know better. They know that society, even today, does not condone that kind of language around young children.
Many, if not most, parents would disapprove to the point of threatening with violence someone who was clueless enough to curse in front of their children. At a minimum, parents would whisk their children away and shun such a person as a clueless jerk or someone with mental problems.
If the authors of the book think they're being cute by using bullshit in the title, they're wrong. They're just resorting to a cheap trick that may trigger the "so what, that's how everyone talks" type of reaction in some, but will trigger the equally legitimate "Get that off my screen!" reaction in others.