出版与作家生涯2013osherove.com
我的自出版书在还没写完时就赚到了 1.1 万美元
My self published book made $11,000 before I finished writing it
导读
一位作者在书还没写完之前，靠预售和已有读者赚到了 11,000 美元：他先积累了约 8,000 名博客 RSS 读者和一万多名 Twitter 粉丝，再用 Leanpub 边写边卖。值得写作者读，是因为它揭示了“先有受众、再写书”的可行路径；但评论也提醒：真正起作用的是营销和与读者的深度互动，而不是平台工具本身。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
先建立受众再写书：把已有的博客读者、社交媒体粉丝转化为第一批预售买家，让收入在完稿前就发生。
- 02
边写边卖：把写作过程本身当成产品和营销事件，既能拿到现金流，也能提前获得读者反馈。
- 03
设置多个价格档位（如众筹的不同 pledge 级别），让读者自选价格，同时叠加限时活动带来的紧迫感。
- 04
警惕“工具幻觉”：文章容易把成功归因于某个平台或小技巧，真正可复制的部分是与目标读者的长期深度互动。
HN 评论精选
众筹应排在自助出版平台之前，它能带来预购、渠道、分层定价和限时营销四重收益，但前提是先有粉丝。
很好的分析，但他漏了一点：Kickstarter。两周前我用众筹发起《Learn Ruby on Rails》，不到两周就筹到 4000 多美元，而且近三分之一的收入来自在 Kickstarter 上发现这本书的人。所以 Leanpub 很好，但先做一次众筹：你能拿到预购收入、多一个重要的销售渠道、按不同档位卖出不同价格，还有限时活动带来的额外推力。出版没死，反而因为 Leanpub、Kickstarter 这类新渠道而兴旺——当然，前提是你得先积累起一批追随者。
DanielKehoe查看英文原文
Great analysis. One thing he missed: Kickstarter. Two weeks ago I launched "Learn Ruby on Rails" with a Kickstarter campaign: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/909377477/learn-ruby-on-rails (You can read more about the book here: http://learn-rails.com/learn-ruby-on-rails.html if you want to help with a new book for Rails beginners). In less than two weeks I've raised over $4000. Significantly, nearly a third of revenue is from people who found out about the book on Kickstarter. So, Leanpub is great, but first, do a Kickstarter campaign. You get advance sales, a significant market channel, sales of a book at multiple price points (customers choose different pledge levels), and the additional boost of time-limited, event-driven marketing. Publishing is not dead; it's booming thanks to new market channels like Leanpub and Kickstarter. And yes, you have to build a following first.
别被工具和小技巧的细节迷惑，真正起作用的杠杆是已有受众和营销能力。
这类文章我总是看得很有意思。通常真实故事更像是“我懂得怎么做营销，所以赚了很多钱”，标题却是“我如何在一个周末挖鼻孔赚了 4 万美元”。读者于是读到一堆挖鼻孔的细节：怎么挖、为什么挖、用了什么工具、鼻子长什么样，还有鼻子图表和逐小时流量曲线，以及“把字体加粗让转化率提升了 0.2%”。总之是极客糖果。真正重要的故事是营销、是与目标受众的深度互动，但作者总是淡化或忽略它。Leanpub 不是故事，电子书也不是故事；拥有一大批博客和 Twitter 读者，并带他们进行一场关于价值的有意义对话——那才是故事。
DanielBMarkham查看英文原文
"...That means about 8,000 RSS blog readers and 10,000+ twitter followers that knew about my book while I was writing it..." I always find these articles interesting. Usually the real story is more like "I know how to market stuff and made a lot of money" but the article titles are something along the lines of "How I made 40K by picking my nose online in one weekend!" So the reader gets this great story of some guy picking his nose. All kinds of details about how he did it, why he did it, what tools he used, what kind of nose he has, and so on. All kinds of little details here and there to get lost in. Maybe some graphs of his nose, or a bunch of charts showing traffic to his site hour by hour and a discussion of how using a bold font increased conversion by .2%. In short, nerd candy. Once again, the important story here is marketing, in-depth interaction with a target audience, but this is always downplayed or ignored by the author, a specialist in getting your attention and engaging you. LeanPub is not the story, although it has a role. E-books are not the story, although they also have a role. Having a huge blogging audience and Twitter following, and leading them into a meaningful conversation about value? That's the story. "...I do very little marketing, and it is mostly on my blog and twitter, in the form of sidebar links from my various websites..." Right now somewhere around 100K HN readers are reading this story, thinking about team leadership, making money online, agile, and so forth. Some significant percentage are going to sign up for the RSS feed, perhaps buy the book. They are going to begin a process of discussion around what's important to them and what they're willing to pay for. Dude. If that isn't marketing, I don't know what is. Great job. (ADD: This looks like a great book, btw. I don't mean to impugn the author or make it out like he's purposely trying to trick anybody. HN is traditionally a startup forum. Just trying to take a fresh look at material like this from the viewpoint of somebody who might want to do it themselves one day. What I learned from this piece is that my current Agile Team Tune-Up email list of around 200 (http://bit.ly/15sz0Pl) needs to expand by about 40-fold before it would be worthwhile to start a conversation about books. Perhaps more than that depending on my engagement skills. This is really good stuff to know.)
预售模式可以复制，关键在持续寻找新的引流渠道。
厉害！我也做过类似的事，我的书在正式发布前赚了大约 3000 美元（完整经历见链接）。我很想知道他的 Facebook 广告效果如何，因为我一直在找更多引流方式。
zrail查看英文原文
Whoa, nice work! I did something similar with my book[1] and made about $3000 prior to final release (whole story here[2]) I'll be interested to hear how your Facebook ads pan out since I'm looking for more ways to drive traffic. [1]: https://www.petekeen.net/mastering-modern-payments [2]: https://www.petekeen.net/adventures-in-self-publishing
传统出版的预付款金额与回本周期，可作自助出版的对照。
很想听听他对传统出版的经验。我 2008 年通过 Wrox 合著出版（2010 年再版）的书，预付款是 12,000 美元，大约花了 12 个月才赚回预付款、开始拿额外版税。
davegardner查看英文原文
Interested to hear about his experience with traditional publishing. $12,000 was the advance paid on the book that I co-authored and published through Wrox back in 2008 (and again in 2010). I think it took around 12 months to earn out the advance and start receiving additional royalties.
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