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From: John <Man@the.keyboard>
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: coloring book...
Date: Sun, 12 May 2024 14:49:16 +0100
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On Sat, 11 May 2024 13:21:07 -0700, "Chris M. Thomasson"
<chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 5/11/2024 11:13 AM, John wrote:
>> On Fri, 10 May 2024 23:11:29 -0700, "Chris M. Thomasson"
>> <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hello everybody. Well, I just managed to publish my first book called
>>> “Fractal Life 247 Coloring Book”. A coloring book of all things! Lol.
>>> :^) Well, it's 99 pages of some of my algorithms that I managed to
>>> render in a way that are able to be colored by others. Mostly vector
>>> fields, escape time fractals, some triangle and circle work, ect... I
>>> actually coded up a C++ program that generates the book. So, its rather
>>> interesting. It was a pain in the you know where to get the margins,
>>> trim and full bleed factors right, but it finally passed verification. I
>>> set the price at 7.42$. I was thinking about 11.42$ but chose the
>>> previous prime from 11 at 7. Then, after I submitted it, I noticed that
>>> 7.42$ is 247 in “Fractal Life 247” in reverse! Strange. 742 is a fun
>>> number! Well, is the price okay? Too expensive? This is my first book
>>> and setting the price is harder for me than creating a new algorithm.
>>> Very strange indeed. Oh well.
>>>
>>> Any thoughts?
>>>
>>> Thanks everybody. :^)
>>>
>>> Here is a link, it just went live. Can you get to it on your end?
>>>
>>> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3WHP7RZ?ref_=pe_93986420_774957520
>> 
>>   Oh, good advert! Well crafted.
>> 
>>   Okay, so I went there, mostly because I like you. :)
>> 
>>   First, Amazon presented me with a CAPTCHA. That bugged the fuck out
>> of me. It is yet another reason for me to avoid the company.
>> 
>>   Next, you say "7.42, they say "9.99". Inflation? Greed? Amazon's cut
>> of the profits? Whichever way, it's false advertising.
>> 
>>   Last, no sample pages? There's a "read a sample" clicky but it
>> doesn't respond.
>> 
>>   Oh, and it's "$11.42" not "11.42$". Even us UKlanders know this. Not
>> that I'm thinking of buying it, not when shipping to merry, old UKland
>> is $7.77 for the slow path.
>> 
>>   See, *I* can get the currency symbol in the right place and I've
>> never even *been* to USAlia. :)
>> 
>>   Hmm, is this a book for children? Or 50-year-olds who are still sort
>> of like children? "Colouring Book" is going to get it put into the
>> Children's section of many bookstores. Lots of till-girls don't read
>> news-groups and don't do Maths. :)
>
>Some of them might be too complex for children, too many places to 
>color. Although some pages are easier than others. Perhaps a way to get 
>children involved with math through interesting means? 

 It wouldn't have worked with me. I was reading maths books at an
early age and I hated "kiddy books". But I am, apparently, rare. This
is a good thing. 

>About the price. 
>Shit. I was advised to increase the price to 9.99$ by many people as 
>soon as possible. Inflation was actually a little part of it... They 
>said 7.42$ is too cheap for my work.

 Honey, *you* paying *me*  $9.99 to read the book is *not* "too
cheap". There is no such animal as "to cheap". 

 You paying me is, however, neither a sound business plan nor wise. 
 
 I wasn't *complaining* about the price so much as snarking that
online adverts don't tell us everything and are subject to change
without warning. Sorry, no offence meant. 

>
>Fwiw, I am starting a companion book that shows some of my algorithms 
>and how to implement them in C++.

 Now *that* ain't for children. Well, apart from me. I used to read
such things before I went to my first school. I was a weird little
bugger. 

 Now, I'm a weirder, fatter bugger. 

>
>https://i.ibb.co/GMy2h0j/image.png

 The horrible thing is that I can just about follow that code. Given a
few minutes, I'd probably be able to. 

 
 
>
>My whole book is in a program called ct_color_book.

 You, friend, are *odd*. 

 That is not  bad thing. 

>
>At $9.99 I make $3.15 per book. At $7.42 I make $1.61 per book. So 
>Amazon KDP takes a nice chunk...

 Oh. 

 By all means charge $11.42 as you originally intended. You did all of
the hard work, you definitely deserve a reward. 

 Have you ever considered archiving all of your sci.math and sci.crypt
posts into books? They wouldn't sell in the millions but at a dollar
per copy it might just buy you a keyboard or sandwich or something. :)

 They say the first one's the hardest. Once you know how to do it, you
should find it easier to do some more. 

 You could always ask Archimedes Plutonium for advice. He's published
thousands of "books". He used to be in sci.physics I think. 

 Anyway, good luck with the new authoring career, may you sell many,
many copies and help to educate the world. 

                                                        J.