
“What I’ve Learned From Failure” e-book, free for 24 hours - raganwald
http://leanpub.com/shippingsoftware
======
Jabbles
Re: Offerings for free

I wonder if a possible market could be made from offering half of the content
for free, with the assumption that if you like the first half enough, you
won't mind paying for the second half, and if you didn't like it, you wouldn't
have wanted to pay for it anyway.

i.e. Watch up to the first half of a movie/tv episode for free (like a big
trailer), if you're still interested, pay for the whole thing?

Easily applicable to books/songs. We already have a limited kind of "try
before you buy", or Amazon's "look inside". But the problem with these is that
they're akin to movie trailers - selecting the best bits of the film. Making a
significant portion (logically the first X%) available might allow people to
make more informed choices. Then again, that might result in fewer sales...

PS. There appear to be some encoding issues, I can see "â€TM " instead of "'"
in some places in the pdf.

~~~
raganwald
Leanpub.com does allow you to make a free sample PDF with as much or as little
of the content as you like, it’s very easy.

So, you can implement the feature you suggest right now!

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ciupicri
By the way the HTML email from Leanpub has a tiny bug. The link from the
following text includes the comma (at least on the Yahoo web mail):

    
    
        especially http://leanpub.com/stealthisbook, which is also free!
    

P.S. I had the same feeling as garethsprice combined with some curiosity, so
thanks for the book and the reassurance that it's ok to download it for free
now.

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forgottenpaswrd
I am downloading it for free, if it is good I will pay for it. I hate using
paypal for paying though, I prefer O'Really's way.

~~~
raganwald
if you don’t like PayPail, I am fine with any of the following:

1\. Don’t pay, and tweet about it including @leanpub, they are evaluating
other payment options and woul dlove to hear from you. 2\. Don’t pay, but
email me an Amazon gift certificate in any amount you please. 3\. Don’t pay,
but email a copy of the book to five people who ought to read it.

~~~
ktsmith
I appreciate the flexibility you've used with publishing through leanpub, I'm
also not a fan of paypal so an amazon gift card has been sent. I look forward
to any future ebooks you publish in this manner as well.

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amalag
Is the author going to set a minimum price on the sliding scale or fix a
price? I think the business model is very interesting. I first saw "free" book
and thought I would download. Then I saw the sliding scale and then it kicks
in to spend something.

~~~
raganwald
As the page says, just slide the slider to zero. The minimum price is zero.

~~~
tzaman
I wanted just to download it, yet the little angel on my right shoulder won't
let me. Suggested price it is!

~~~
garethsprice
I wanted to just download it too and had the same feeling when confronted with
the slider, but I don't want to pay for it as I don't know if I'd actually get
around to reading it. My choice was just not to consume it at all rather than
offend the author and out myself as a cheapskate by taking it for free.

Not sure if this is rational, but it's an interesting reaction.

I'd be interested to see stats comparing the bounce rate and revenues from
this experiment to a) regular paid downloads, b) direct free download link
with no slider.

~~~
raganwald
You’re welcome to download it, read it later, and if you like it later, “re-
buy” and pay whatever you like. Since I’m the author and the one saying it’s
ok to pay zero, I can assure you it’s ok to pay zero now and pay whatever you
like later. I’m not offended in the least!

~~~
lode
I bought it (paid for it), but can only seem to download the PDF. The other
formats are just listed as empty bullets. (Tried in Safari and Chrome.)

~~~
raganwald
I just republished it to include a CC license, try downloading again please.
If that fails, we need to talk to leanpub.com. Thanks!

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neilk
This is great, I've always wanted to know what it's like to fail!

~~~
raganwald
My claim to fame is having as much experience with failure as you can collect
without winning a Darwin Award.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanterne_rouge>

