出版与作家生涯2013theseniorsoftwareengineer.com
我自费出版的书：如何成为优秀的开发者
My self-published book on being a great developer
导读
这篇帖子是作者宣传自己自出版的书《成为优秀开发者》，HN 评论主要围绕营销页面、作者可信度、目标读者和示例代码质量提出批评。对写作者的价值在于：内容和营销同样重要，必须让陌生读者快速明白“为什么值得读、为什么该信你”。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
目录和摘要要先回答读者“为什么读、读完能得到什么”，再列“会学到什么”。
- 02
用资历、推荐语和高质量样章建立信任；陌生读者的时间和钱都稀缺。
- 03
标题和域名可以简洁传达定位，但落地页别像夸张广告，也别预先缩小受众。
- 04
付费内容的示例必须完整、正确；逻辑漏洞会直接摧毁读者对质量的信任。
HN 评论精选
营销页应先讲清收益并建立信任，而不是只罗列目录。
先恭喜你出书。我给一些友好的营销批评：花 50 美元买个好的 WordPress 主题，初级工程师很挑剔，多卖两本就能回本；目录只告诉我“会学什么”，没告诉我“为什么想学”，而“为什么”往往是多赚钱或做出很酷的东西，建议把那三点移到首屏；可以建邮件列表发片段再升级销售，我没听过你，购买前希望看到资历，推荐语也有帮助；页面底部再放一个行动号召也没问题。
jmduke查看英文原文
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.
好标题和域名会被糟糕的落地页、无关元素和受限的受众定位抵消。
标题简洁、域名也不错，让我愿意相信你；但网站像那种“网上赚百万”的骗人广告。摘录不错却不突出，应该重点展示，甚至用金句链接到摘录页；那个清单删掉；别用“对管理不感兴趣？”这种话预先限制受众；封面也……
chavesn查看英文原文
(Hasty, possibly unfounded criticism follows) I'm a software engineer myself, and I already believe that great advice can come from unexpected sources, so I visited your website willing to be convinced that you really do know what you are talking about. These are a few things that I had immediate and decisive opinions on: - Your title here: "My self-published book on being a great developer" - Sets me up to expect advice from someone like myself (otherwise why would you self-publish?) -- which is a good thing. It's a sign that you relate to me. And "on being a great developer". Concise, I really like that. Off to a great start! - "theseniorsoftwareengineer.com" - Good domain name. I like you already. Connotes relation to career and adding the "the" makes me think about the true meaning of "senior". Then I get to your website. Sorry to say, but that's where it goes south. - It reminds me of those scammy "make millions on the internet" advertisement websites. They may actually make a lot of money with their over-the-top styling, so I'm not saying I'm right, but it's a turnoff to me. - Excerpts - Good! But they don't stand out. Call them out! Maybe even link some great quotes to the excerpt page instead of the word "excerpt". - The checklist - it's gotta go. I didn't read it, even though the text was huge. - Try to neutralize the statement "Not interested in management?". I don't think you need to preemptively limit your audience. - The cover -- Your style is up to you, but because the text is fairly small, in thumbnail size it doesn't balance well against the huge text on the rest of the page. And I like large text -- but it just needs to balance well. - Avoid generic statements like "A guide for making the most of your career" or "simple techniques for fixing bugs" -- everyone offers these. What is unique about your take? What did folks like about your blog posts that motivated you to write this book? - Some of the good content, stuff you should highlight better: Stuff about you, "instant download", "197 page eBook", links to your blog posts. Sorry if this is harsh -- I think you are off to a great start and I hope this helps even a little bit.
建议类写作必须明确可信度和目标读者，否则难以服人。
指导类书籍应该来自公认、可信的来源。如果是自传式“什么对我有效”的写法，肯定有受众；但如果只是给建议，读者就会问：凭什么由你来说？我也不确定这本书写给谁，暑期实习生以上几乎每个开发者都自认资深，过度自信的自我评估很常见。
huhtenberg查看英文原文
I don't know. It's great that you wrote it and I can completely understand what sort of undertaking it was, but the problem with any mentoring book is that it should come from a recognized and credible source. If this were an auto-biography book, written from the "what worked for me" angle, it would certainly have an audience. But if it just dispenses advice, then it begs the question what makes you think you are in a position to do that. I am also not sure who it is written for - pretty much every developer above summer intern thinks of himself as a senior :) Over-inflated self-assessment is a norm.
付费写作的示例必须完整正确，细节错误会破坏读者信任。
在《Technical Debt and Slop》摘录里，判断订单是否免费的示例只比较用户商店余额加折扣和商品价格，没考虑数量或购物车里的其他商品，等于同一笔余额被应用到每件商品上。这是逻辑 bug，我扫了 30 秒就发现。摘录重点虽是代码重复，但这仍是草率写作；博客可以这样，付费内容就该高质量，代码示例应完整且无 bug。
LargeWu查看英文原文
So maybe this is nitpicky, but it's the difference between books I buy and books I don't. In the 'Technical Debt and Slop' excerpt, there is an example about determining whether an order is free. Basically it compares the customer's store credit plus discounts against the price of the object. It does not account for quantity, or other items in the user's cart. Essentially, the same store credit amount gets applied to every item. This is a bug in the logic, and it took about 30 seconds of me scanning the article to notice it. Now I realize that's not the point of the excerpt. It's about code duplication. But it's still sloppy writing. That's fine for your blog, but if you expect me to pay, I expect content that is of high quality. Code examples should be complete, and free of bugs.
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