#1 in Linux! Sort Of!
Today I have a funny story for you.
A long time ago, technical writing used to be my main focus, but these days it’s really more of a hobby. Over the past few months, I wrote a new book about Ubuntu Linux since the desktop environment changed from Unity to GNOME Shell, and I published it yesterday.
So far, the only copy it’s sold has been the copy I bought myself on Amazon US to check that all the formatting was working correctly.
But! That was apparently enough to make it the #1 New Release in Linux books.
I’m guessing there haven’t been too many new books about Linux published recently. 🙂
-JM
Jonathan,
I just doubled your sales!
Thank you for all of your fiction work.
🙂
Thanks! 100% increase in a single day. 🙂
I just bumped it up as well…:) I did purchase another one of your Linux books a while back, maybe soon I will even read one (time is always a factor).
Thanks for all the hard work in fiction as well as non-fiction!
Thanks! A 200% increase over yesterday! 🙂
Linux help and documentation is extensively available and searchable on the web. It would’ve never even occurred to me to buy a such book. I don’t think I’ve bought a book for Linux or a programming language for decades at this point.
Someone at an advanced skill level isn’t my target audience. I’m aiming for the absolute beginners just starting with Linux, and there are way more of those than there are experienced developers or database admins.
Since my UBUNTU BEGINNER’S GUIDE is my 9th bestselling book of all time and LINUX COMMAND LINE BEGINNER’S GUIDE is my 11th bestselling book of all time (the other occupants of the top 11 are FROSTBORN titles), I think my logic is on-point. 🙂
This is actually exactly how I just came across your books for the first time: Manning recently published my Linux in Action and I was wondering how on earth your Ubuntu book made it to #2 on Amazon (I guess I just missed its moment at #1). At first, the fact that you didn’t seem to have physical books and your low pricing made me wonder if you weren’t one of those scammers who steals documentation from internet sites and quickly pastes it into shoddy eBooks. But a quick look at a page or two of your book tells me that you’re completely legit.
But that doesn’t explain how your book is ranked so much better than mine – despite the enormous production and marketing investment behind it. Whatever the back story is, I’m not jealous: you deserve it. 🙂
David
Nah, if I was a scammer, the book would be in Kindle Unlimited. 🙂
Manning has sales channels other than Amazon – my new one is just on Amazon, B&N, and Kobo at the moment (I’ll get it on iTunes and Google Play in a few days).
Seriously, I think we’re writing for completely different market segments. Like, yours looks like it’s aimed at the serious professional Linux sysadmin. Mine’s aimed at the absolute beginner. I made a conscious decision to aim tech books at the absolute beginner, because I figure there are (and always will be) way more absolute beginners than people who need to manage a Postfix server or run a NAS cluster or something. My favorite email about my other book THE LINUX COMMAND LINE BEGINNER’S GUIDE came from a high school teacher who wound up having to teach an AP Linux course with only six days to prepare, and my book helped him get through it. That’s the audience I have in mind for my books.
Also, it’s really hard to sell hardcover books. My very first novel came out in library hardcover back in 2005, and selling it was an enormous difficulty. Ebooks and even paperbacks are way easier to sell.
Good luck with Linux In Action!
That teacher’s experience reminds me of my brother-in-law who, many years ago was teaching business math in a junior college. They asked him if he could teach a CompTIA A+ course. When he told them he didn’t have that cert himself, they told him to “read the book and teach it.”
There’s apparently an old joke in the academic world: “Read the book? I haven’t even taught it yet!”
That is true! I once taught a class with only six days’ advance notice. So long as you can stay at least one class session ahead of the students, you can pull it off.