Ask HN: An entrepreneur's travel guide? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: An entrepreneur's travel guide?

4 pointsmittermayr7 comments

I have written a technical book on DIY electronics before, which was successfully published. It's been a while and I am thinking of writing another book now.

I want to call it something like "100 Places to Disconnect", or "100 Places to Reboot". Basically, a global guide containing/highlighting the most inspirational places around the globe, with a bit of a backstory, some go-to places, possibly tech-hubs or co-working locations etc.

While working for Microsoft, as well as for other companies around the world, I have always had the benefit of traveling a lot and working in super noisy mega-cities as well as some of the most remote places on Earth, like the Gili Islands, street cafes in Kuala Lumpur, fishing docks in Seattle or on an almost empty island in Greece. And it's so inspiring to just disconnect from your daily life, exit to a different place/culture and bust out some code or come up with new ideas. Ideas that are often bigger than your day-in-day-out rhythm would allow you to come up with.

I want to revisit my most favorite places as well as those from other entrepreneurs (you guys would be a GREAT resource!).

Would you guys feel this makes sense? Is there a specific publisher that would be interested in, or does anyone have any contacts I could utilize for that?

Would this sound like an interesting book to have for you? I'm not much of a 120 page e-book type of person, I'd like to work through a real publisher for various reasons (revenue unfortunately is not one). It's harder to get the deal signed, but everything else is usually managed exceptionally well afterwards (royalties and such).

Anyways, would love to hear your thoughts.

I have friends who publish periodically through publishers, and those who self-publish. As lifeguard mentions, publishers tend to require tremendous resources from authors, by way of huge marketing pushes/travel, blogging, promotion, marketing, etc. I'm not so well informed about the cost of production via publishers, nor the buy-back of unpurchased books from B&M stores.

For those who self-publish, they still do their own marketing. E-published people invest the least cost (i.e., no printing), and perhaps equal time on marketing/promotion. Paper-published people invest more up front because of printing, but perhaps reach a wider audience if they can get their books into B&M stores and because like it or not, many people still prefer paper.

This is admittedly unscientific; my sample size is about 20, though some of them blog about their experiences, and refer to their own circles of authors and their experiences, as well.

As for your proposed book topic, sounds like a wonderful idea to me.

Thanks for the interesting insights. As said in another comment below, there are some great advantages of self-publishing.

However, buying back unsold copies from a publisher, even having to invest a single dollar in something other than researching the book is pretty unheard of for renowed publishing houses, at least from what I can gather through my limited experience and contacts.

In addition, a lot of the editing, layouting, franchise and distribution work is far more reliable, affordable and streamlined through a publisher's capabilities compared to kick-starting my own efforts on these topics.

Self-marketing your books online might have experienced a great change indeed, but I believe there's a whole lot of work between writing the book and selling it. And that's where the publisher usually stands out (still, unfortunately).

Happy you like the idea, this is reassuring. Thanks!

Why not do print on demand?

http://www.lulu.com/publish/

Thanks for posting this, I know of lulu, but I'm sure others will be happy to learn about it. To address your question: It's a bit like with Indiegogo and Kickstarter. You will have a hard time getting funded if you don't have a good round of friends/supporters that are pushing you up in the first few days. Especially Indiegogo, where a lot of people (including me) quickly realize, it's just a mode to get funding, but it won't attract funding. Lulu is a mode to print a book, but the publishing process involves a whole lot more to reach your audience. I'm not a marketing genius, neither do I have great connections to book stores around the world. But publishing houses have, which is also why they only give you like 7% of the net price of a book and keep the rest.

It's also about reputation, which thankfully is shifting a lot now. I remember a few years back, when the first self-printed type of books showed up on Amazon and quality of content was hard to judge (especially for Kindle/ebooks). If this passes the eyes of a publisher, I know that there's likely a market for it - and most buyers (not always the case though) can somewhat rely on the quality of the book.

Just a few thoughts. If you're a known person, or know how to market really well, then Lulu would be a kick-ass option.

Also, two more things that a publisher will give you: - Editor - Layouting done professionally

The cost/benefit analyses never pencils out for these services.

Ah, so you want someone to promote your book. I am no expert, but I have heard publishers are not so useful for unknown artists. You will also be saddled with the cost of producing your books, and buying back the unsold copies in 60 days from brick & motor book stores.

I think you would get the most publicity by publishing yourself and spending money on gaming the best seller book lists. There have been stories linked to here on HN about this.

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