出版与作家生涯2013nathanbarry.com
权威案例研究：新手作者如何卖出 3 万美元
Authority Case Studies: $30k in sales from first-time authors
导读
这是一篇关于自助出版实战的案例合集：Nathan Barry 用几位首次出书的作者案例，展示如何靠预售、落地页、借力他人受众等手段做出约 3 万美元销量。对写作者来说，它既是营销打法的样本，也引出一个更根本的问题——把精力花在包装上，作品本身的质量谁来负责。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
展示用户的真实成果（案例、读者反馈）比自夸更有说服力，读者愿意相信“别人能做到，我也能”。
- 02
把落地页、邮件列表、预售、借力他人受众等多种手段组合在一次推广里，效果远好于只用一两种。
- 03
警惕“包越多、排版越花哨”的营销式电子书：形式上的堆砌往往意味着内容组织混乱、编辑缺位。
- 04
营销、排版、校对这些事会挤占写作时间，作者要想清楚哪些该自己做、哪些该交给出版社或外包。
- 05
读这类案例文章时留意字里行间没被强调的小细节，最有价值的经验常常藏在那里。
HN 评论精选
自助出版商业/技术书常见质量问题是排版注水、结构混乱，多套餐销售是质量差的信号。
我买过文中提到的几本书，也买过不少用类似套路营销的书，大多失望。它们通常是作者的处女作，留白很多、字号很大、结构随意，和 Pragmatic Programmers 那种书完全不是一个水准。我也很容易被“这本书能解决你的具体问题，哪怕省下一小时就值回书价”这种文案打动，但太多这类发布已经让我对自助出版的商业和技术书失去兴趣，除非实在找不到别处能获取这些信息。我的经验法则是：如果一本书按多个“套餐”出售，那基本说明质量堪忧，读完只会后悔浪费时间。
rainl查看英文原文
I've bought some of the books mentioned in the article, and many more which have been marketed with similar tactics, and have generally been disappointed with my purchases. They are often the authors first book, heavy on the white space, with large fonts and so on, haphazardly organized, and night and day from something like a Pragmatic Programmers title. I'm as susceptible as anyone to the copywriting strategy of "this book will solve your particular problem and, if you save even an hour, it pays for itself" but too many launches of this type have soured me on self published business and technical books unless there is absolutely no other place to get the information. As a rule of thumb, if someone is selling a book in multiple "packages" , to me its an indicator that the quality will be poor and I will regret the time wasted reading it.
展示客户成果能借“他们行我也行”的心理促成购买，多种营销手段组合使用效果远好于单点突破。
这篇文章有两点很值得学。第一，Nathan 展示客户成果非常聪明——能指出别人用它取得了成功，产品就更好卖，因为我们都爱相信“他们能行，我也能行”。第二，落地页、发布名单、预售、借他人受众来卖，这些具体手段如果放进同一场推广里一起用，成功率远高于只挑一两个来做。我还喜欢从这类文章的缝隙里找那些没被大张旗鼓强调的小洞见，最好的经验往往就藏在明面上。
programminggeek查看英文原文
There are two awesome takeaways from this article. One, it is really smart that Nathan is showcasing his customer's results, because it makes it easier to sell the product if you can point to success other people had with it. We all love to tell ourselves the story that if they can do it, I can do it. Two, if you look at some of the specific tactics like landing page, launch list, preordering, leveraging other people's audiences to sell your product, etc. and put them together all in the same campaign, you are much more likely to do well than if you do just one or two of those tactics. I always like to read/listen for the little nuances that sometimes creep through articles like this in-between the lines. Some of the best little nuggets of wisdom are hidden in plain sight and never made a big deal of.
传统出版社承担封面、编辑、审校、排版、营销等大量工作，作者的职责应是写作而非包办一切。
我没做过自助出版，但作为 No Starch Press 的作者可以说，出版社为书付出的劳动可能比作者本人还多：请人设计封面、文字编辑、技术审校、排版、营销。传统出版投入的工作量惊人，所以有人抱怨自助出版书的质量我一点也不意外——在我看来，这些事务对一个人来说实在太多。说句实话，作者真正该做的是写，难道还要操心营销、排版和校对吗？我认为不该。我还会选传统出版社：我的书好看、好读，还摆在本地 Barnes & Noble 的书架上。虽然拿不到全部收入，但我有了更大的读者群和稳定的被动收入。
mcone查看英文原文
I have no experience with self publishing, but as an author with No Starch Press (http://nostarch.com/masteryourmac), I can tell you that publishers probably put more work into the books than the authors themselves. Publishers hire people to design the cover, copy edit the manuscript, provide a tech review, lay out the book, and market it. The amount of work that goes into a traditional book is astounding, so it doesn't surprise me that some people here are complaining about the quality of self-published books. In my opinion, the logistics are simply too much for one person to handle. And let's be honest here. The real work of an author should be to write. Should they really have to worry about marketing, layout, and copy editing? I think not. I'll go with a traditional publisher again. My book looks beautiful, reads well, and is on the shelf at the local Barnes and Noble. Sure, I don't get all of the revenue, but I do have a wider audience and steady passive income.
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