Getting ready for the Better World Book kickstarter - April 2019

Nicole Alderman wrote:Jocelyn is AMAZING!

Paul and Jocelyn have been in my neck of the woods a few times, and I've gotten to meet them both in person. And, while Paul is great and all (my son has decided that Paul is like "Grumpy Bear"--a little rough around the edges, but underneath the rough exterior, he's a nice guy who also does awesome stuff ), Jocelyn is just AMAZING. She's such a warm, understanding, caring, intelligent woman who is just a pleasure to be around. Three cheers for Jocelyn!!!

I also want to meet Nicole, who sounds so lovely.

Richard Kutscher wrote:On the signed book thing, I would say either offer it or don't. Don't have it as a stretch goal but make sure it costs enough monies to cover all the costs.

I.e. if one physical book is $20, then a signed book is $50, or whatever price you deem fit. That way even one book will cover postage. Time or hassle might not be covered but then YOU can laugh at staff and say FOOLS, I was right and fluff your overalls repeatedly.

Gurk.  

After a long conversation with shawn we came up with the stretch goal idea.  Because then it is something that could be worked out.  

Bill was saying that getting the signature was usually an extra $10 or $20 for a kickstarter.  

I confess that this is something that is really outside of my ...  path?  I have never desired the signature.  Although I have signatures from some authors in some books.  Because they left notes about me, it kinda shows that they actually know who i am - proof!  

The whole kickstarter is gonna be super focused on the $100 level.  If we get funded and we have stretch goals, we are already talking about how a lot of the stretch goals will be for "$100 and up".  

I thought the stretch goal would be that if we hit that stretch goal, we would sign one copy of the books at the $100 level.   But you think that is a bad idea.   And I would attempt to understand why that is a bad idea, but I don't understand why anybody would want somebody to scribble in a perfectly good book.  

Maybe we should have a $120 reward called "signature" where one of the books is signed?

r ranson wrote:Bookmarks as part of a stretch goal?

I didn't think this was important, but then I noticed that I enjoy the bookmarks I'm getting from supporting kickstarters as much as I'm enjoying the books.  

It's not much to print a few thousand bookmarks.  They make useful promotional material.  And I really enjoy it.

I did something like every book (you could specify physical book) gets a bookmark.

Late night thought - just wanted to share that I think it would be neat if you could do this.  

About 24 hours ago the summary of my thoughts in this space were "I'm not into custom bookmarks."

And then I walked to my mail box and found a copy of your book... with a custom bookmark inside. And now I'm starting to think that bookmarks are pretty cool. And I wish all my books came with a cool bookmark.

So maybe this is something worth considering. I am just not sure how to fit it into our existing plans.

I think the bookmark should be something that has information on it, kinda like the permaculture playing cards. I'd love to play around with that idea.

Tracy Wandling wrote:I think the bookmark should be something that has information on it, kinda like the permaculture playing cards. I'd love to play around with that idea.

I like that Tracy. Perhaps the bookmark could be like a "quick start" or a "cheat sheet" for the book...
Here's the top five things you can do to make the world better in the next ten minutes (list with page numbers for details).
And here's the top five things you can do about your heating (list with page numbers).
And here's the top five ways to eat healthier for less...

And this one is really important... Attached to each one of those lists with page numbers is... "Here's the link to the thread where people are talking about these ideas <insert link>"... so each book(mark) moves people to permies.com. (Maybe that should be a short bit.ly link, or maybe Paul just creates a few aliases at permies.com to provide short URLs)
^^^^^ That is my inner marketer emerging for it's annual peek out from behind my engineering mindset.

Exactly, Ashley. Make it interactive and something a person would want to keep, or buy more and give away.

And it should fold into an origami house.  
   /\
  |  |

And do dishes.

It's strange, I never really liked bookmarks before.  There was so many of them.

Then in the last few years, I've struggled to find something suitable to use as a bookmark in my library books.  It's been very frustrating because we have so little spare paper in the house.

I lamented the lack of bookmarks in my life.

Then I started supporting kickstarter projects and now I have beautiful bookmarks in my home again.

I'm thinking if I got a dozen bookmarks advertizing this book, I would secret put them in random library books as a way of infecting brains.

Todo before starting the kickstarter:

  - finish appendix B
  - last pass through all chapter notes
  - create isbn and copyright page
  - have banners ready
  - finalize shipping costs stuff so we have the right number in the kickstarter
  - put together something that will be good enough as a media kit
  - get the full description and tags ready for when the video goes up on youtube
  - finish getting all the earlybird stuff set up
  - get the PEP ebook ready
  - finish 3 microdocs from last kickstarter

What am I forgetting?

Here are a bunch of 150x150 banners for permies

Here are some leaderboard banners for permies.

Tracy - seems to me those fabulous banners could be tweaked for the bookmark?

I'm an anal-retentive editor correction type if you want to make use of me for 'final passes'; not sure what they entail but I can offer a bit of time if it would help?

PJ, we have the comments of about 30 people tagged through every sentence of the book.   Kinda like editor notes.  We need to read through all of the notes and decide on changes.

Paul - I can only imagine!  Thanks for the reply and it's good to have so much help, though I hope edits go swift and smooth.  :)

This is shaping up so well :) very exciting!

A couple of thoughts - is there a time frame in which the gift codes need to be redemed? Or a timeframe in which the extra gob of videos and such need to be watched?

Also when it comes to engaging people about the kickstarter - I would suggest that two days before the kickstarter you put a countdown clock on permies for everybody to see with an ad or link to the first 48 hour pack of goodies. Then during the kickstarter have every ad on the site be about the kickstarter for 48 hours. Also, perhaps all the things in the digital market that are included in the kickstarter should only be available through the kickstarter for a period of time. As in somebody goes to purchase the pdc/ atc download of 177 hours - but instead are redirected to the kickstarter.

Perhaps for the first 12 hours or something all of permies should redirect to kickstarter. You said before that something like 10% open your monthly email. Maybe some of these ideas will help with conversion. Also, perhaps the announcement email just come directly from paul wheaton vs paul wheatons monthlyish email.

Whoo!

Hi Bryan, thanks for your encouragement!

Bryan C Aldeghi wrote:A couple of thoughts - is there a time frame in which the gift codes need to be redemed? Or a timeframe in which the extra gob of videos and such need to be watched?

Paul can correct me if I'm forgetting something important, but I think the short answer is "probably not." Or maybe more accurately "until the internet breaks" or "until the permies servers give up the magic blue smoke" or something like that. Of course, it would be safer to redeem earlier than later.

Bryan C Aldeghi wrote:Also when it comes to engaging people about the kickstarter - I would suggest that two days before the kickstarter you put a countdown clock on permies for everybody to see with an ad or link to the first 48 hour pack of goodies. Then during the kickstarter have every ad on the site be about the kickstarter for 48 hours. Also, perhaps all the things in the digital market that are included in the kickstarter should only be available through the kickstarter for a period of time. As in somebody goes to purchase the pdc/ atc download of 177 hours - but instead are redirected to the kickstarter.

Perhaps for the first 12 hours or something all of permies should redirect to kickstarter. You said before that something like 10% open your monthly email. Maybe some of these ideas will help with conversion. Also, perhaps the announcement email just come directly from paul wheaton vs paul wheatons monthlyish email.

I think that you have some great ideas. Really what it comes down to is that we have oodles of ideas and a limited amount of time and will have to decide which tasks we feel will make the biggest impact. Thanks for your suggestions.

Thumbs up! If I can help in any specific way let me know.

What shawn said.   I usually say "many years" - hoping for decades.

1. I want to say I am eagerly awaiting the kickstarter date! This is a much needed book! I am conflicted about listening to the better world book podcasts (spoilers)..
2. My real question is that I read/heard (cant remember) about the possibility of an audiobook... If this does come to fruition and someone (myself) donated enough for multiple physical books would we be able to sub one physical book for an audiobook version?

You guys are awesome!
Allissa

r ranson wrote:It's strange, I never really liked bookmarks before.  There was so many of them.

Then in the last few years, I've struggled to find something suitable to use as a bookmark in my library books.  It's been very frustrating because we have so little spare paper in the house.

I lamented the lack of bookmarks in my life.

Then I started supporting kickstarter projects and now I have beautiful bookmarks in my home again.

I'm thinking if I got a dozen bookmarks advertizing this book, I would secret put them in random library books as a way of infecting brains.

I would totally buy bookmarks!

Paul- Bookmarks similar to the permaculture playing cards would be amazing!!!

Audiobook! That would be amazing! 1000 thumbs up for that :)

Audiobook stuff appears to be pretty expensive.   We are thinking that an audiobook would have to be a whole different kickstarter, or maybe a stretch goal if this kickstarter does super well.

Sorry, it's undoubtedly too late for this, but I'll throw it in there anyway. Been listening to the podcast chapter readings. Thought about responding, but didn't. Didn't think it'd do any good. However, I've changed my mind.
The chapter on getting rich, early retirement, etc. reminded me of what I really dislike about these 'hey, you can save money and be rich / be mortgage free / retire early etc.' schemes. Every one I've read assumes a person actually has a job which provides a living wage. Lots of people are too poor to have any slush in their budget, they already know all the tricks to live cheaply. They just don't have enough money to make the jump. You know that aphorism, it takes money to make money. Well it takes money to save money in the long term. Ask anyone who's poor, and never had access to a lump sum to kickstart the process.
So if you, or anyone you know, knows of ways poor people can, for example, retire comfortably rather than dying in a ditch when they're no longer able to work, then lots of people out there need to hear it.

By the way, the promo video is fantastic. I was watching it without sound, having forgotten to turn on the speakers, and it was perfectly understandable even without the voiceover. Well done!

Are you saying that right there, in that chapter, is a good place to mention the stuff about PEP, the bootcamp, ant village and deep roots?

K Rawlings wrote:Sorry, it's undoubtedly too late for this, but I'll throw it in there anyway. Been listening to the podcast chapter readings. Thought about responding, but didn't. Didn't think it'd do any good. However, I've changed my mind.
The chapter on getting rich, early retirement, etc. reminded me of what I really dislike about these 'hey, you can save money and be rich / be mortgage free / retire early etc.' schemes. Every one I've read assumes a person actually has a job which provides a living wage. Lots of people are too poor to have any slush in their budget, they already know all the tricks to live cheaply. They just don't have enough money to make the jump. You know that aphorism, it takes money to make money. Well it takes money to save money in the long term. Ask anyone who's poor, and never had access to a lump sum to kickstart the process.
So if you, or anyone you know, knows of ways poor people can, for example, retire comfortably rather than dying in a ditch when they're no longer able to work, then lots of people out there need to hear it.

I'm thinking that this is a very important thing to discuss, as I think there are many ways for a single person (especially a male) to save money while earning poverty wages, but it's a lot harder for a woman (sleeping in a car or with other people can be dangerous), or a family.

When I get a second, I'd like to copy your post and start a new thread with it. For now, my kids need me!

I think I sense an opportunity to translate.  K, I suspect Paul's answer to your question is the PEP philosophy, bootcamp, deep roots and ant programs at Wheaton Lab.  They are methods for someone with minimal capital to learn the skills and get the land they need to live the dream.  They are somewhat limited to his site in Montana but the idea of them could be very transferable.  

So his question back to you is if those programs should be included in the book.  

paul wheaton wrote:Audiobook stuff appears to be pretty expensive.   We are thinking that an audiobook would have to be a whole different kickstarter, or maybe a stretch goal if this kickstarter does super well.

That would be cool--I wanted to mention if you all decide to go that route I recommend this service for getting the audiobook made:

https://findawayvoices.com/

They are recommended by a number of independent authors that I follow online and have a system setup to make it easier for authors to sell audiobooks direct. Here is a quote from them about price:

An average audiobook created with Findaway Voices has about 50,000 words and costs between $1,000 and $2,000. We can estimate the cost of your audiobook by multiplying a per finished hour narrator rate with the estimated length of your finished recording. The longer the book, the higher the estimate will be.

Findaway has narrators that they work with and from what I have listened to on podcasts it seems like the whole process is fairly straightforward.

Just some info to consider if you decide to make it a stretch goal or do it in the future

I do think, if Paul did an audio book, it'd be super cool to have him be the narrator. Paul's got a distinctive voice that's already been heard in many youtube videos, and it'd feel a lot more personal.

Nicole Alderman wrote:I do think, if Paul did an audio book, it'd be super cool to have him be the narrator. Paul's got a distinctive voice that's already been heard in many youtube videos, and it'd feel a lot more personal.

That would make it a lot cheaper. Narrators are the most expensive part. But it also takes a long time to do the narration. I know for myself if I ever do an audio book I would be very torn by which way to go. Narrating an average length book could mean 8+ hours of audio not counting any redos, etc. But if Paul did do it himself the cost would be a fraction of what it would be hiring someone. Really just need the equipment (might already have?) and the software to put it all together.

But a decent narrator could potentially mimic Paul in a way that works. They could listen to the podcasts to get a sense of how Paul talks. I like Findaway because they let you try out narrators until you find the one you like based on free samples of them narrating part of the book.

Lots of choices and pros and cons for both paths. Basically, what is more important... upfront time or upfront money?

Nicole Alderman wrote:I do think, if Paul did an audio book, it'd be super cool to have him be the narrator. Paul's got a distinctive voice that's already been heard in many youtube videos, and it'd feel a lot more personal.

Paul and I have had numerous conversations about this. We both agreed that he could make an excellent audiobook. And then we agreed that he already has too many irons in the fire. And that it would be good for him to focus on those irons that are in the fire and allow someone else to focus on the audiobook. So if we do end up doing an audiobook, today I'd say it's a 95% chance that we go with a professional.

Have you considered that as an audio-book, some of the chapters with charts or pictures might need a bit of tweaking? A professional might have useful ideas about that also.

I have been looking for ways to help.

Though I also feel Paul's would be preferable, I would be happy to narrate, free-of-charge.

I have done small voice jobs, mostly for existing concierge clients, so am not a full 'professional', but if you would like a mutt English/ American accent with excellent articulation it would be my pleasure to contribute.

K Rawlings wrote: Every one I've read assumes a person actually has a job which provides a living wage. Lots of people are too poor to have any slush in their budget, they already know all the tricks to live cheaply. They just don't have enough money to make the jump.

I feel the same about all those books.  I don't make enough money to do what they suggest.  

But it is possible to do it on an income of $100 CAD (about $75 USD) a week (after housing).  It just needs a different approach.  I would love to see books that talk about this.  Then again, I tried writing one the other day but everything I had to say on the topic only filled half a page.  

We just added this to the kickstarter page:

About the time of my fourth kickstarter, I had this powerful feeling of gratitude.  How cool is it that so many people are trusting me with their coin for six months?  I see other kickstarters that make it clear "we will sell this for $20 after the kickstarter, so give us $40 for it now." I think it should be the opposite of that.  You are throwing your shoulder in with me to get this done.  You are being far more trusting and supportive than people that wait.   So I want you to have the best price, and lots of bonus candy!  

pj smith wrote: I have been looking for ways to help.

Though I also feel Paul's would be preferable, I would be happy to narrate, free-of-charge.

I have done small voice jobs, mostly for existing concierge clients, so am not a full 'professional', but if you would like a mutt English/ American accent with excellent articulation it would be my pleasure to contribute.

Wow, that is very generous! Thank you for your offer. I think right now we're in the space of "let's focus on getting this kickstarter actually started." And once it's started, we have a lot of work to do to try and get funded. And if we achieve that then we have more work to do to try and get more funded. I think this is a good conversation if it's looking like we are doing very well on the kickstarter. Maybe remind us then?


Another take on the audiobook is the thought of "what if a famous person did it?" This would open the door to infect the brain of a famous person with all of this stuff. And maybe draw some people to the audiobook just because a famous person recorded it. Of course maybe they want a ridiculous amount of money to do something like this. But it's worth looking into if and when the time comes. Does anybody know of famous-like people who record audiobooks?

Jay Angler wrote:Have you considered that as an audio-book, some of the chapters with charts or pictures might need a bit of tweaking? A professional might have useful ideas about that also.

In short, yes, I have thought about it a little bit. But mostly we'll cross that bridge if and when we get there.

paul wheaton wrote:Are you saying that right there, in that chapter, is a good place to mention the stuff about PEP, the bootcamp, ant village and deep roots?

That is a great idea though would be sure to describe each program so similar programs can be found in 50 years.