
Show HN: Bootstrap In Practice, my ebook for starters - trumbitta2
http://www.williamghelfi.com/bootstrap-in-practice/?hn
======
edbloom
I can't understand some of the comments here saying this is too expensive.
Seriously folks, William has put together a great into to Bootstrap for a less
than the price of a billable hour and it's too expensive? Sure all the
information is out there - if you want to spend a few more billable hours
finding it - plus a someone who is just now getting up to speed on Bootstrap -
most of the tuts out there are for Bootstrap 2. I think the timing is right.
The sample chapter is great. Williams product will hopefully save me many
multiples of the purchase price by not wasting time seeking the right
information and that is a point lots of people seem to be missing.

~~~
veidr
Exactly. The complaints are wildly off-base; it doesn't matter whether it
costs more or less than a college chemistry textbook; it matters whether or
not it will save you more than $60 worth of time.

I mostly write native apps, but happen to have started to make a website for
the first time in several years the other day. Having decided to start with
Bootstrap, I spent at least an hour chasing down blog posts about using
Bootstrap, and then googling to see how things had changed since v2, how
people do X and Y, finding conflicting opinions of unknown provenance, etc
etc... and was expecting to have to do more of that to finish getting up to
speed with Bootstrap (especially since I'm starting with v3 and most of the
info on the inter web tubes pertains to v2).

So _of course_ I bought this book. In order to be a worthwhile investment, all
it has to do is save me from the hassle having to do that again, one single
time. Perusing the site it really looks like it will. Sold!

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steveklabnik
You know how when discussing SaaS pricing, people always say "raise your
prices, the cheapo customers aren't the ones you want?"

Well done actually releasing something. Your price is fine. Don't let people
get to you.

~~~
packetslave
+1. Don't change your pricing until the results say you need to. And don't let
the commenters here that feel the need to shit on someone's hard work get to
you.

~~~
trumbitta2
Thanks to both. I nearly forgot that I resolved to act following the data.

It's kind of a new experience to me, but I'm learning a lot and that's what I
always try to do.

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victorhooi
I'm on the cusp of buying it - the $59 for the package is probably a bit much,
the $29 is alright, but definitely not an impulse buy.

I guess you've done your pricing research - but the consensus, at least on HN,
seems to be that $20 is a price most people would just go for, but as you get
higher, people really want to know what justifies the higher price. It is a
free-market economy, I know, but if you can somehow justify the higher price,
then you'll have a lot more sales, and a lot more happy people willing to
spread the word.

The fact that most O'Reilly/Pragmatic Programmer/Manning books - which are
generally very good quality, well-proofed and technical - are priced around
the $20-$30 mark doesn't help things.

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marveller
Maybe $10 for the book (kindle books about bootstraps are around $5-$10 at
Amazon) and $30 for the whole kit? There are so many free templates out there
and also 5-10 commercial bootstrap bundled templates for only $10. Although
they are not the best designs, but are good enough to learn how it's used and
coded with live samples.

I agree with so well documented official documentation, it's going to be hard
to sell.

Edit: BTW, there is even Bootstrap 3 video course at lynda.com.

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solomatov
The price is inadequate. I would pay $10, maximum $20 for it, especially
taking into account that the subject is well documented in blogs and official
documentation.

~~~
trumbitta2
That's certainly a good point of view. Thanks for the feedback!

I wrote the book exactly to help who finds the official documentation too
difficult to grasp as a whole.

I was in that very situation two years ago when I started with Bootstrap, and
I thought that people out there will be in the same situation starting with
Bootstrap 3 now.

~~~
solomatov
The problem with the documentation isn't that it's difficult to grasp, but
that it's scattered all over the internet, i.e. some useful stuff is on
stackoverflow, some in blogs, some in official documentation. It's a good
niche for a book, i.e. many people would buy it, provided, that it has a
comfortable price.

I like the book and contents, but the price on the site is quite large. A can
buy a bunch of tech books on IT ebook sites like Oreilly's for it. I would buy
it without thinking for $10, with some thinking for $20, and for something
around $30, I will buy only after thinking through about whether I really need
it.

~~~
trumbitta2
Thanks, that's the kind of feedback I'd always like to get!

I had doubts about the pricing until the very last second before launching.
But all in all, I just remembered all the work and passion I put in it, and
decided to go on with this pricing.

Now that a good number of purchases are done, I just can't change my mind. So
I'll go on, and learn whatever there will be to learn from this amazing
experience.

~~~
cloudwizard
I would have felt better about Ebook pricing if you included the kindle
version. I keep my reference books on a kindle with a 2 month battery. My
tablets are always out of power when I need them.

~~~
oracuk
A kindle version is a good idea. The PDF is difficult to read on the kindle in
its current layout and an auto-conversion by Calibre makes it worse.

I'm limited to reading this on my laptop and my phone now. It looks like good
content. shame about the format.

~~~
trumbitta2
I don't know... the code on the book is meant to be read and immediately
tried. What's better than a PC / Laptop for that?

That, and the difficulty (for me, at least) to get a decent book filled with
screenshots and examples in epub / mobi, is the main reason why a chose to not
produce Kindle-ready formats.

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Demiurge
I spent this Thursday and Friday migrating a pretty complicated site from 2 to
3, and boy it is a pain. My word of advice to anyone reading, do not use v3
for a desktop oriented website unless you specifically desire new hybrid grid
system. It doesn't have fixed width elements anymore. It doesn't have truly
flexible elements either. Form inputs are now screwed up (flexible) by
default, lots of things are screwed up, some examples on the official website
are still screwed up. It wasn't worth it, it looks and functions worse than it
did, even with a bunch of new custom CSS.

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michalu
I agree it's expensive, there is no way I would pay that price and I would
like to read it. I read a lot and it just feels inadequate to me, I never
actually paid that much for a single book. The themes on the pic don't look
any great either.

------
trumbitta2
Here you can also find the table of contents:
[http://www.williamghelfi.com/blog/2013/09/06/bootstrap-in-
pr...](http://www.williamghelfi.com/blog/2013/09/06/bootstrap-in-practice-
tomorrow/)

------
lesbaker
It looks interesting but for $30, there's just not enough meta-info for me as
to what all it contains. I'm guessing it walks through the construction of the
examples mentioned (landing page, blog). But is there an overview of the
different classes, and when to use them? Customization ideas? Advice on
migrating a site from version 2 to 3?

I believe a table of contents would be a huge help in knowing what it covers.
I don't think I will purchase personally (especially at the $40 non-discounted
price), but I've wanted a good Bootstrap-specific book for a while. If you had
a mailing list for the book I would subscribe, especially to watch for further
editions or promos.

~~~
trumbitta2
TOC available here:

[http://www.williamghelfi.com/blog/2013/09/06/bootstrap-in-
pr...](http://www.williamghelfi.com/blog/2013/09/06/bootstrap-in-practice-
tomorrow/)

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arityfn
Oh, its not free.

~~~
jackmaney
Not only is it not free, but it's about the same price as many college
textbooks.

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victorhooi
@trumbitta2 Just bought a copy of the book package =).

If you're still reading this thread, and have any time, I'd really value your
advice on this:

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18671572/multiple-
stacked...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18671572/multiple-stacked-full-
width-background-images-with-bootstrap-3-0/18671671?noredirect=1)

I'm trying to get multiple full width disavowed images going in Bootstrap
using your background image CSS, not sure how to make it responsive.

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andmarios
Show HN? More like spam.

~~~
jackmaney
To be fair, I really don't think that the OP was trying to spam HN.

~~~
camus
It's a spam , even on reddit it is , the OP links to a page wide ad.. Want to
promote a paid stuff ? buy an ad , just dont use HN.

~~~
trumbitta2
I'm sorry, I did my research and found at least 3 ebooks linked on hacker news
without complaints for spam, so I thought it was okay.

BTW, I would be also interested in a discussion about the sales page, copy,
style.

I am a web developer, after all.

~~~
louisdorard
Indeed, there was "Designing Web Applications" by Nathan Barry for instance.
See discussion at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4909784](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4909784)
. Very similar discussion on pricing by the way...

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jonaslejon
I bought a copy. Nice book! The format of the book seems kinda odd thought.
This is a screenshot from my iPad Mini with Readmill (eBook reader):
[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/947269/IMG_0053.PNG](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/947269/IMG_0053.PNG)

~~~
trumbitta2
Mmm interesting... would you mind trying in landscape mode?

Also, I think the best use of the book is to read it on a PC / Laptop and
copy/paste to try the examples as you go :)

But, as always, your mileage may vary!

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yurylifshits
A little amount of SEO can help.

E.g. a typical search query can be "bootstrap ebook". Currently, you use
"ebook" word only once in the smallest font. Your title has neither of this
words.

At the very least, change your title to something like "Bootstrap in Practice
— ebook and step-by-step examples"

~~~
trumbitta2
That's true, but I'm not sure I'd really like to be found via that query.

Maybe I just have to do it and live with it :)

On the other hand, I recently searched for "bootstrap 3 grid" and "bootstrap
landing" and was amazingly surprised to be on first and second place. That
really means a lot to me, because even with the ebook I wanted to share what I
learned and be helpful to someone.

------
trumbitta2
FYI, I added an optional email course with more content, which will cover tips
and tricks, customization, profiting from Bootstrap, and more.

Head to the sales page, the form is where you download the sample chapter
about the grid system :)

------
clarky07
As I read all the comments complaining about the pricing I just can't wait for
the recap post coming in a week or two saying how he made 5-10k today :-)

This isn't priced off of how much paper or bits cost people. If it saves a
developer even an hour it is easily worth the price of admission.

~~~
clarky07
Can I ask why the downvote? Even if you think it's too expensive I don't see
why this particular comment is worthy of downvoting.

