Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I changed my book from 10$ to free.

After 300 sales I decided it was better to let hundreds of thousands learn how to save money, than 300.

My only regret is there is no positive feedback.

With a sale, I get an email and paid. With a book view, I barely get analytics.

I suppose my request as an author, give feedback. At least let me know what you like or didn't like.




People tend to value something if they have to pay for it. Similar to how humans behave around expensive fashionable goods.

If I pay for something, I make sure I make the most of it versus something that is free.


I do the opposite, I release my books for free for a few days and then put the price I want to.

Agree with feedback, would be a great motivation to receive positive comments and a chance to improve if it is critical. With novels, we generally leave a rating and possibly a review on goodreads/amazon/etc but with self-published route, that isn't an option.

I'm thinking of conducting live video sessions based on book to get active feedback


Haven't read your book so I can't comment on the execution but from a bit of a look at your site it definitely seems very interesting. Topic wise you're killing it.

Bookmarked to have a read over the weekend.


My book costs $20.95 hardcover/10.95 paperback on Amazon. When Kindle books and the Kindle went live, I added a Kindle version. I wanted to make it free, but Amazon mandates a minimum price of 99 cents, so that's what it costs.


Maybe you should ask for an e-mail address and let the readers decide if and when they want to get a link to write some feedback ;-)


Where can I find your book?


https://efficiencyiseverything.com/efficiency-everything-coo...

The cookbook was my best seller. Hope you enjoy!


I get a page not found error for the download link: https://efficiencyiseverything.com/Efficiency-Is-Everything-...


updated, thank you!


Thanks for this. Food is not an overly large item in my budget (~11% net) but with my life being just me and my son 182.5 days out of the year, I'm definitely interested in applying some engineering to my grocery list.


Check out the /time/ its made my own life incredibly efficient


Make sure to ask for feed back on the website and in the book PDF.


Have you thought about asking for a symbolic price like $1?


In my experience, even just $1 would have a significant chilling effect. And making the book available for free has the benefit of helping those who don't have credit cards (due to e.g. geography, socioeconomics or age).

A nice alternative can be a "pay what you want"approach, with a recommended amount and an option to pay nothing.


I would imagine the credit card usage forms the majority of the chilling effect. Personally, I find it a lot more annoying to faff around with using the credit card to pay for something (even when I consider the cost negligible) than to just download it.


On a second thought, this is what happens to me, too.

Before I pay a $1 and have to log in to PayPal or whatever, I will rather not pay anything, although I value the content.

Interesting effect.


$1 is cheap.

Free is author offering knowledge for free.




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: