I’m hoping to be able to start selling “The Yii Book” in the next couple of weeks. By that time, I should have the introduction plus Part 1 of the book completed. I’ll be selling the book as I write it, and anyone who buys a copy will be able to download the book at that point and get free updates of the book as updates are posted.
The book will initially cover version 1 of the Yii framework (the current version). When version 2 of the framework comes out (probably production ready in the first half of 2013), I’ll update the book for version 2. If you bought the first version of the book, you’ll be able to get the updated version at no additional cost.
Right now the expectation is for the book to be 26 chapters long, broken into four parts. It will probably be around 500 pages or more. The book will be available in DRM-free PDF and ePub formats.
The question I pose to you is: how much should I charge for the book? There will be a minimum charge (i.e., you cannot pay less than X), but the system will be set to allow readers to pay whatever they want above that. For example, one person has already offered to pay $50 (seriously). And she is the most awesome person in the world. But I’m not going to charge $50. From my perspective, the book is a ton of work, and I have no guarantees of income (especially compared with going the traditional publication route), but I don’t want to gouge readers, either.
Thanks in advance for your input and interest in the book!
What do you think is a reasonable minimum amount to charge for "The Yii Book" in electronic format?
- $20 (36%, 89 Votes)
- $15 (USD) (34%, 84 Votes)
- $25 (22%, 54 Votes)
- $30 (11%, 27 Votes)
Total Voters: 244
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. Thanks!
In my opinion, a lower price would help the book to reach a major diffusion. That said, with people being able to pay as much as they want more than the starting price, I think there will be a certain number of people willing to pay more (like the guy you cited).
Thanks for the input. I’m not sure if traditional relationship between price and sales quite applies as much here. I think more people are going to make the decision based upon whether or not they want this book, not whether or not they want it at X price. But that’s why I’m running the poll: to see what people think I should charge. Which, by the way, is a different issues than what people are willing to pay, as the woman cited is willing to pay $50. Thanks again!
I think you shouldn’t sell this book at a price that is too low, mostly because it’s written by you, and that is the real value as it assures the clarity, completeness and competence you are famous for. Also, the book’s title itself says that it aims to become the best Yii’s book available, a must-have for those willing to use the framework. All that being said, I still think that an affordable price would help it (it’s also what I’d expect from an ebook, which is usually a bit cheaper than a traditional book). In conclusion, I just can’t wait for it to be available!
oh, and that was still me, but with a different account! *Marco*
Thanks again, Marco!
You have $25 twice in the voting options
D’oh! Thanks for catching that. Fixed.
I opted for $20 based on amazons kindle price for your books of similar length. I’m not sure a lower price would attract more buyers as it is a specialist subject and would also depend on which channels you would be selling through.
Obviously the lower the better from a buyers perspective, but I don’t think $20 is a lot for this kind of book, digital or not.
Thanks for the input, Robert!
I think $40 is reasonable because it would be invaluable especially as its written by you. The vote doesn’t make sense to me of course everyone wants it cheap and to save money.
Thanks for the input, Edward, and for the nice words.
I think $30 would be fine, you have to consider this e book will also be updated for Yii Version 2, and this e book could have more info added on people’s requests of areas they are unsure of in the framework. This ebook can be expanded whereas a published book once printed can’t. You are the only person with the full set of Web Development books on the market and you also have your wonderful support forum with very helpful dedicated people. I don’t see other books offering such great support as you do, so therefore the price should be higher considering the full benefits to be gained in learning with you.
Thank you very much, Edward. Glad you appreciate everything I do.
I am a poor fledgling developer but I’d give you $15-20 to help me learn my first php framework. I’ve learned a lot from your previous books so I’m confident your Yii book will be no different.
Thanks, Joel. Hopefully in time you won’t be a poor fledgling developer anymore. If it helps, it wasn’t that long ago that I would have described myself that way, too!
$15 is probably too low — I voted for this — and especially for a full length LU book. I’ll be paying more when your online purchase page is available.
And how much of a rewrite will the 2nd edition be? Your 2nd / 3rd / 4th etc print book editions are all worth buying, because of the copious amounts of extra information, insights etc. If Yii proves of use with my website, and your book unlocks Yii’s mysteries, I would “buy” the second edition, maybe for $20.
Thanks, Gowan, for the input. As for the 2nd edition, updated for Yii 2, how much of a rewrite that will be will depend upon how much changes in Yii 2. Hard to say write now. Keep in mind that I won’t be charging people again for the 2nd edition if they bought the first. Whatever you pay for the first, you’ll also get the update for Yii 2.
30 bucks for this kind of information is a steal.
Thanks, Doug! Let’s make it $40 then.
Larry,
I’ll pay $30-$50 for your “The Yii Book”, more like $40-$50 since you are throwing in the Yii 2 updates when available.
I just voted $30 since that is the highest. If I were wondering about Yii and hadn’t really heard about it, I would suggest $25 for your book. And perhaps calling it, “The Yii PHP Book” so people that have never heard of Yii know it’s about PHP.
Will you be including a chapter on Yii SOAP, XML configuration? That’s what I use for integrating Yii into the API’s of eBay and eventually Amazon, Buy.com and our websites. I’m actually using PHP DOM and simpleXML coded within Yii as I don’t know exactly how to use Yii for that yet.
If you include an API chapter that would be great! I’ll still be at the $30 even if API isn’t there as I can use the aforementioned.
Thanks so much for making the Yii book!
Jeff
Thanks, Jeff! As for your question, are you specifically asking about creating an API using Yii or using someone else’s API via Yii? Both are worth discussing. I had thought about doing the former, but I should probably do both. Thanks for the input and the support!
Specifically using someone else’s API via Yii. That someone else being eBay, Amazon, Drupal, Facebook, etc. – I use the PHP cURL and SOAP/XML into eBay’s API…and also providing an API would be great too if possible!
btw, I didn’t receive a notification of follow-up/new posts even though I set it for that. I just happened to check in and you had replied. Happened on another post I made too.
Love your books Larry – I’m on the BostonPHP group on chapter 5 of your PHP beginners book.
Ha! Yep, I’m still a beginner I guess, even though I’m using Yii to mostly have my semi-sophisticated price update program written to do what I need over to eBay for 8000 listings. Must be all that programming kicking in again that I learned long ago beginning in 8th grade in Assembly Language, Fortran, PASCAL, BASIC, COBOL, etc. back in the 80′s and early 90′s. I’m so thrilled that it’s all coming back to me. Confidence is building a lot since your books and Yii. Can’t say thank you and the people over at Yii enough.
Thanks again for the input, Jeff. Will take that into consideration. And thanks for the nice words on my books. And congrats for the success you’re having using this knowledge.
IMHO $15 is too little for the value you are providing. Maybe $30, $40, or $50 allows you to provide more timely updates, or maybe it just helps your writing process suck a little less. Either case, I’m happy to pay for that, considering you are doing free updates for v2.
You’re probably aware of this already, but the Rails Tutorial ebook is $26.
Thanks, David! The truth is I’m just going to sell it for double what gets the most votes here.
That’s a really good idea have a default lowest price then have radio buttons to let the buyer pay up to $100 if he likes. Any surplus amounts paid after the default price could be a good will donation.
Hi Larry!
In Malaysia, your PHP Visual Quickstart Guide is going for about RM 175 (about 50 USD). It’s a bit on the pricy side but the content and the style of writing definitely made up for it. So for a book which is going to be expanding over time 30 – 50 USD sounds reasonable. 15 – 20 USD is a little bit too cheap, especially since Yii is getting more popular by the day and there are soooooo little resources.
A few questions if you may, how are you going to sell it? Directly on the website? Will you take PayPal? Thanks a lot!
Thanks, Hassanin, for the perspective! As for your questions, I’m going to sell it directly here using Stripe. I was hoping to avoid using PayPal. Do you think credit cards are going to be a problem for international users?
Hi Larry !
In Italy we attend your book !
Thanks, Franco. I await going back to Italy some day!
Hi, I am writing from mexico, so the my final question, where can I buy the first part of the book ????
don’t you have any date yet?
Thanks in advanced!
Thanks for the interest. The book should be available by the end of the month at the latest. I need to finish the final draft of Part 1 and then make sure I’m happy with it in the various formats. And I need to whip together the site where I’ll sell it. I’ll be sure to let everyone know the minute it’s available!
i think 20$ is low enough for such book,
cant wait.
shalom from Israel!
Thank you very much!
Hi Larry, I’ve been waiting a long time for your Yii book. I’ve just received your PHP Object Oriented Book (which I pre-ordered) and am finding very informative – and is pushing my understanding.
Well written professional books on technical subjects are easily worth $20/$25+. I know it’s an e-book so usually they come slightly cheaper than a printed version but i’d still say the range as above.
Thanks for the input, Lee!
I think you could get the largest amount of money by doing something like this:
- Get a good domain name related to the release. (theyiibook.com, etc)
- Allow users to pay per chapter (2 dollars per chapter * 26 = 52)
- Allow them to pay per par ( 10 * 4 ) = 40 dollar
- Allow them to pay for the whole book. 30 dollars.
- Payments should be easy. (Phone would be great for chapters) PayPal, etc
This way, people will be more likely to check out your book. Lower price, plus easy access = less piracy. Allow people to buy the chapters they are interested in, will also most likely generate much larger volumes on sale. People pay 2 dollar for an app without though, and will do so we this ebook to.
This will also give you a very large audience noticing your name. That will probably generate sales on other books too.
Proper marketing, lots a free chapters for internet reviewers (that will again write articles about the book) and trying to get the YII website to advertise this book (I’m sure they will after your close work with the devs) will be most successful.
My two cents.
Thanks, Thomas, for the detailed input. You know, I had considered buying theyiibook.com several times, but I always read that as They ii Book. So no go. I’ve decided on another domain name. I do plan on implementing the per chapter model, but not until later on. I probably won’t do a per part. Payments will be done through Stripe unless there’s a strong push for PayPal, too. Thanks again!
Larry, I’d prefer to pay with Amazon or PayPal so I don’t have to pull out my credit card and type in the numbers. Silly I know but it’s true for me. But I’m open. Also, I’m going to want the PDF version for my iPad…Hopefully in PDF vs the Kindle emulator. Reason is when I’m reading your Kindle version PDF on my iPad it doesn’t show what chapter it’s on and some other things missing that PDF books have on my iPAD…just an FYI. Thanks!
Thanks, Jeff. I’ll consider implementing PayPal, too.
If you were writing a book that would appeal to general audiences, then you would be able to charge a low price such as $15 and still make a lot of money from the sales. However, this book will appeal to a narrower audience, so you may not sell as many copies. I recommend that you estimate (from your other books) the number of sales expected and then, based on the income level you want for the period of time it takes to write the book, divide the income by the number of estimated sales. If the price determined in this fashion seems ridiculously high or low, then make some adjustments if you like, but keep in mind that sales generate income. Lower price may not generate more sales due to the limited market. Also, your intended market will be expecting to increase their own income by learning something new, so the cost of the book will be considered an investment rather than an expense, so buyers should be willing to pay more for the education than a typical reader who is buying entertainment.
Further, if you charge by the chapter, the cumulative cost of the book would be easier for a buyer to handle, and if a customer realizes after a couple chapters that he doesn’t want to continue, he hasn’t sprung the entire cost of the book to find that out. So therefore, you could charge $5 per chapter and end up getting $130 for your book. I personally wouldn’t want to buy a book for $130 to learn Yii, but if I started reading at $5 per chapter and realized that this is really good and helpful material, I wouldn’t mind going the distance for the total price, especially if I could pay separately for each chapter – and especially when you promise to provide a free “update” to Yii 2 when it becomes available as a stable release.
I didn’t choose and answer in your poll because the numbers didn’t go high enough!
Thanks, Tom, for your input. Unfortunately it’s impossible to know (in advance) if I can accurately estimate how many books this well sell. I’ve got books that have sold only a couple thousand copies and those that have sold hundreds of thousands. But those are all through traditional publishers. Being a specific topic that I’m selling myself only in electronic format (to start) and without any true marketing, who knows what will happen? But thanks again for your thoughts.
I’d pay $20.
What if you have separate minimum prices for each Yii version? For example, say the minimum price for version 1 was $20, but for $25 you also get the version 2 update? I feel like that would entice the people that can afford it to pay a little extra.
Also, remember you can lower the price later but can’t increase it. A promotion where you get a discount might also help to spread the word. I don’t know, I’m not an expert, but maybe it’s worth having a chat with someone who is.
Either way, I’m looking forward to it. Good luck!
Thanks for the suggestion, but I think it’d be too complicated to price it that way. I’m trying to keep the decisions to a minimum and that two tier pricing forces people to try to decide if they’d want the version 2 edition as well or not. Thanks again for the input and for the interest!
I think 30$ is a fair price considering we have access to some updates , it’s a really great idea by the way , it’s so frustating to buy some books about outdated frameworks version.
Thanks for the input!
About payment i vote for Paypal ..
Paypal takes a fat commission, offer a range of options and push the one where you get them most back.
Thanks, Robert.
Okay, thanks for letting me know. I will consider using PayPal, too.
I think you should charge at least $30. Here is why. You have agreed in a previous post to first publish a book on Yii 1x and offer a free upgrade to the 2.0 version. In essence you are providing almost 2 for 1 (yes, I know that Y2 will quickly replace Y1, but getting your feet wet with version 1 can’t possibly hurt). $30 is reasonable for that type of commitment. I am looking forward to its release.
BTW – I would also love it if you considered a high end printed version of this book. I purchased Chris Coyier’s Digging Into WordPress book in both electronic and printed versions. He provided a beautiful spiral bound full color book that makes it super easy to highlight and take notes, and it stays open to the page you are on instead of always wanting to close like so many tech books are prone to do. A good model would be your Modern Javascript book except in a spiral bound version.
Thanks, Jim, for the input. Much appreciated! I do plan on providing a print version of the book once I have a complete edition done.
Hello Larry from Uruguay. If the book is good, that is, if low the learning curve by 20%, if it is easy to understand and guide in learning Yii in a simple and pleasant, then the book’s price increases.
But it would be a book of a framework that has just begun, so that lowers the price. If the framework is imposed as one of the standard for PHP, which is what I expect from Yii-and your book is good, then your book would become in a kind of reference from which you could quickly take pride and get good profits. And you could also get to become an industry reference and say to yourself: I helped in large part to the success of Yii.
Thanks for the input, Javier!