
Paul Graham: The Art of Funding a Startup  - tangcius
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005MEG11Q
======
AndrewWarner
I should have done a blog post to explain what's up but I've become so
obsessed with one part of Mixergy that I let this (and other things) slide.

pg knows about this. It was done by a YC company. My site wasn't scraped. This
is more than the interview.

Also, entrepreneurs like pg are heroes. Till I'm old and unable to move, you
should expect to see me experimenting with ways to get their stories out. If I
knew how to draw comic books, you'd see my interviews in the comics section of
amazon too.

~~~
Jun8
My first reaction to this was, "OMG, a new book from pg! Why didn't I hear
about this before"? The comments here cleared up things for me. I think having
the word "interview" in big letters somewhere on the cover would be less
misleading.

You do explain things somewhat it in the Product Description, but in a very PR
way "hold the answers, etc." without mentioning the book _is_ based on the
interview. Some people here say that it's just the interview? Can you clarify
if it is more than that and if that what have you added?

In addition to the blog post, I think you should have a better description on
Amazon.

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kevingao1
All - just want to re-affirm Andrew's points and provide some more
clarification - we're the publisher behind the eBook, and we did partnered
with Andrew/Mixergy to do it.

In short, we work with domain/subject-matter experts to publish high-quality
eBooks. Some we create ourselves, some we work with publishers who already
have great content (eg, Mixergy).

Since we're a startup there's still a lot that we need to improve, but one
thing we're doing is making the books more interactive, and for PG's book
we'll be adding video clips from the interview. Unfortunately Kindle doesn't
have an easy way to provide existing customers an update, but if you did buy
the book, please email me (kevin@hyperinkpress.com) and I'll share it with
you.

Also, if you have knowledge on any topic that people would pay to learn more
about, and want to create a beautiful, high-quality eBook to share that
knowledge, please reach out to me - we're actively recruiting authors. A big
thing of ours is sharing a lot of the content for free, it's not purely
altruistic since that's great for building loyalty and traffic too. Thanks!

Kevin, Founder of Hyperink

PS Right now hyperink.com has almost nothing on it, we'll be launching a
marketplace for our eBooks and our authors in the next 2 weeks

~~~
BrandonM
Considering that you're the publisher, what is your response to this review?
[http://www.amazon.com/review/RMK171BE5NOQ1/ref=cm_cr_dp_perm...](http://www.amazon.com/review/RMK171BE5NOQ1/ref=cm_cr_dp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B005MEG11Q&nodeID=133140011&tag=&linkCode=)
The third and fourth points, specifically, seem to contradict your claim that
you publish "beautiful, high-quality eBook[s]."

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staunch
Maybe I'm wrong but it looks like Andrew is taking an old interview,
converting it into an eBook, adding the interviewee as an "author", and
selling it?

~~~
e1ven
If it wasn't with PG's explicit consent, this would be rather dishonest. If
that panned out I'd be very wary about conducting an interview with Andrew..

I'm probably being overly cynical, but I'd love to see either Mr. Warner or PG
clarify that separate permission was granted for this ;(

~~~
jackowayed
I'm sure he asked PG for permission.

Hyperink, the publisher, is a YC company, which may have been part of PG's
incentive for doing it.

~~~
e1ven
You're probably right, and I certainly hope so. I respect Andrew. He generally
does decent interviews, and I think he's likely a good guy over all.

I do think he tends to push the boundries of what's socially acceptable
somewhat, which is why I'm questioning. I'm sure I just have a somewhat
cynical perspective, forgive me.

I'd still love to see it stated on-the-record, as it were, however.

~~~
ltamake
I bought the book for Kindle and it's just an interview. Since the publisher
is a YC company and Andrew is a cool guy, I don't feel bad giving up $5 for
this.

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perokreco
I bought it and it looks terrible on my Kindle, some sentences repeat
themselves and there is a "Paul Graham" string shown 3 times per page. The
about Paul Graham text was actually behind his picture, so overall quality of
this is extremely low.

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btucker
Here's the table on contents in case anyone wants to get a better idea what
they're buying: <http://i.imgur.com/pzjj7.png> The eBook is around 20 pages
long.

In other news, Kindle.app only allows copy & pasting 33 words at a time...
hence the screenshot.

~~~
grok2
"Foreward"? Is that on purpose?

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atldev
Highly desirable content (from PG)...check

Supporting someone (Andrew) who provides a huge service to startups...check

Easy-to-consume format for Kindle...check

Easy-to-consume price...check

Shut up and take my money.

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nhangen
I watched the interview, which was great. I wonder, does this add to the
interview, or just break it down?

I wish the cover listed the author...it took me a minute to figure it wasn't a
book by PG.

~~~
FreshCode
Wait, Paul Graham didn't write this? Do not want.

~~~
rsuttongee
Amazon is listing both Andrew Warner and PG as co-authors.

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davidw
"It turns out", the secret is ... Paul Graham?

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jackpirate
Why is there no dead tree version?

As much as everyone here loves their e-readers, some of us still find
hardcopies more enjoyable. I, for one, won't be purchasing for this reason
only.

~~~
jmtame
I'm genuinely curious why you prefer a paperback, could you elaborate? Also,
wanted to ask: have you tried the Kindle app on your Mac/PC and mobile device
yet?

~~~
wheels
I can answer for myself:

• I read books when I want to escape computers, the internet and the
distractions they bring. That's part of what I love about them.

• I don't own an ebook reader or a tablet. I don't have any plans to purchase
one. I have no desire to read a book on my phone, and the only books I read on
my laptop are technical books with no real value as literature.

• I like physical collections of things. I've never bought an eBook, nor
music, nor movies to be downloaded. I have hundreds of CDs and vinyl records
and around a thousand paper books. Books aren't simply things to read, but a
physical representation of my life's history: virtually everything I've been
interested in in my life is displayed on my bookshelves.

• I can give a book away. I do that a lot. Two walls of my living room are
covered in bookshelves. When I'm talking to someone and there's a book I think
they should read, I give it to them. I've bought my favorite books half a
dozen times, because I want to have them around to give away.

• I mostly read books away from home, in places that I don't want to whoop out
an expensive device (because it makes it a target for theft, because I think
it looks dorky) -- parks, the subway, cafés. This is connected to the first
point -- I like getting away from the distractions of the internet and being
somewhere where I can just read.

• I can throw books in my bag when I'm headed to places where there's a high
propensity for me to lose or have my bag stolen. Catching the subway on the
way to a concert? If I lose my book that's $10 down the tubes, not $100.

~~~
davidw
All good points, but I thought I'd point out that...

> I read books when I want to escape computers, the internet and the
> distractions they bring. That's part of what I love about them.

... the Kindle is actually fairly good on this count. Checking email on it is
so clunky as to not be a temptation at all. It doesn't make noises or have
alerts, and it has a very long batter life. So if you get into a book, the
fact that you're reading it on a device does fade into the background, leaving
you to concentrate on the content.

~~~
gbog
I concur, kindle.app and variants, kindle fire, all have nothing to do with
the real Kindle, which just a book, slightly more convenient.

Like GP, I also buy, collect, give paper books, and have a wall of them in our
living room, including all Balzac in a 18xx edition. But when I travel I take
my Kindle instead of spending one hour pondering which book to take.

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guruz
Didn't this site have a no-affiliate-link policy?

~~~
ceejayoz
Whether it does or not, I'm flagging it for that.

~~~
1880
It seems to be a normal link now.

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6ren
_About Hyperink, the publisher: [...]_

 _There's no writing required and it's a unique opportunity to build your own
brand and earn royalties._

No writing. That's disruptive to traditional publishing.

~~~
jarek
Not really. Ghostwriting is a well-established phenomenon.

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rastafark
Its awesome when things like this are put out into the community. I hope it
gets very specific. Paul's experiences are most similar to where an early
stage startup will have. A couple years back most of the information on this
topic glossed over angel investing, which was the first step an entrepreneur
needed to know about. Without understanding how to get past that part, knowing
how to raise a series A didn't matter.

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triketora
Looks like something in between a blog post and a real book. Are these
Hyperink books organized like real books or just transcriptions of interviews?

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bigohms
No preview? Only Kindle? I'd be curious to know if this eBook/MixergyNotes
touches on funding ventures other than just YC.

~~~
levesque
It is also available on B&N in ePub format. There seems to be a free sample as
well, didn't look at it though.

I noticed one funny thing while browsing the B&N site, in the "People who
bought this also bought" section : <http://imgur.com/ZFAwY> :)

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mynameishere
This is obviously a specialty book. Small audience. He probably should have
charged more.

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sneak
PDF download link plox

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aneth
I've noticed a lot of crap e-books in Amazon lately that are comprised of
Wikipedia or about.com style articles and selling for a few dollars. Some of
them appear to be computer generated scrapings from PDFs, or some other
unreliable method.

Make a killing publishing individual Wikipedia articles as ebooks...check.

I'm wondering:

1) Does the publisher have a right to this material, and to charge for it?

2) Is this material available elsewhere on the web?

3) Does Paul Graham or anyone else get compensated?

I would encourage anyone considering buying this sort of thing to know the
answers to these questions before their purchase.

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gunz_rozez
Always find PG's talks and blog posts engaging....might be a good read.

