I need more info before I can pick a price. How about a table of contents or an outline of major and minor topics?

If I had to pick a price right now I would say $15. If you ask for more than that, I’m going to start wanting to read reviews or sample chapters to make sure that the book is really worth my money.

@Jacob,

If you find a good PoD service will you let us know who they are?

I don’t think you’d need to put out an entire chapter as a sample…. that would spoil it for those of us who will buy your whole book:) I think just a 10-page sample would be more than sufficient. Table of Contents, too, sure, yes.

Sorry, I did not participate in the survey; I would probably pay zero. I’m not a very good consumer. I prefer to think I am getting everything by keeping up with your site.

If I did meet someone who I thought would like this as a gift, I would probably just refer them to your site, too.

For me, it depends when it comes out and what my need to read it is. For example, if I want to read it right away, borrowing it from the library may be difficult. Or if I am going on a trip and I want some reading to keep up then it needs to be some relatively light reading. Otherwise, it needs to be a book I want to keep for reference.

I did vote but in my attempt to live with less, I use the library instead of buying books.

All the best!

I agree with Money Energy, and I think Debbie M missed the point of the exercise.

I would pay $25.00 for your book both in theory and in practice.

When I visit a blog everyday, I always buy that author’s book even when the site has a complete archive available online.

BTW I would appreciate a PDF version of the book, but a bound book is also nice.

Any chance you are going to post the poll results soon?

I am really looking forward to this book. Especially since it is, in the author’s words, more comprehensive than this blog.

I for one greatly prefer ebooks. I also am confused and much less likely to buy an ebook (zero resale value) unless it significantly less expensive.

I just shake my head when I see bound books for less than or equal to ebooks.

Ok…Like a lot of you I am so tight that I whistle when I walk.

But I am happy to pay $50 for your book even if it was a how-to book on eating dog crap. I feel I owe you much more then $50 for the value of this blog.

Now I don’t know how many of you feel the same way.I see this as a way to thank Jacob for his blog.

Come on guys…This is Jacob we are talking about. Just think how many hours of enjoyment you have logged here on this site?

I agree with Chris. We owe you, Jacob.

But for most potential buyers it will be different. How much people are willing to pay will probably depend of the presentation/table of contents/reviews.

If for some reason you’d set the price low, you might want to propose that people donate more after finishing the book, if they think it’s worth more to them. Some books add so much to your life that they’re worth a very high price (“Getting things done”), but it’s only after reading it that you know if that’s the case.
(just an idea, maybe a bad one because, after all, interested people tend to be on the frugal side)

First the max I would pay is $14.95. That being the trade paperback, non-discounted price.

If you decide to market your book as an economic textbook then by all means you could charge $49.00-$89.00 for it. Easy. Textbooks are outrageously expensive and they MUST be purchased. And it may be the best route for you to leverage your PhD!

If you want to sell mass quantities of this book then you need to find a way to get it on QVC, Costco, Oprah, Wal-Mart. This would require you to be a hypocrite though and suck up to those individuals whose motivation is MASS Consumption. The bottom line is all these money and financial gurus are in it to build their wealth.

You could do just as you are doing, self-publish and then the book, over time can become popular and a cult following, i.e. Joel Dominguez, Your Money or Your Life.

It would definitely help if you would good luck and you could get yourself booked on TV shows, etc. to begin marketing your book like you see on local television programs.

Good luck. Again, I would buy it for $14.95 which is what I paid for Your Money or Your Life over 10 years ago. And I love that book.

Good Luck!

Jacob your book is going to be big. Forget about deciding the book price yourself, some bean counter at a publishing company will do that. I expect to hear you on the radio doing interviews soon. Your anti-consumer message is coming out just as Americans are ready to listen.

You could repay your loyal blog readers by recommending specific stocks in your book, but telling us which ones before it comes out.

I read your blog because it is usually interesting but worry that your book would not be of value to me. I have a plan and am on track with that plan. The financial books I have purchased in the last few years have given me very little to justify their cost. It seems there is nothing I have not come across somewhere already.

I remember you mentioning Rich Dad, Poor Dad in one of your posts and people complaining about a lack of “actionable” items in the book. I would be one of those people. I do not need inspiration at this point and have no interest in contributing to the RK moneymaking machine. He already robbed me for the cost of two books since I read RDPD and another whose title escapes me at the moment.

So, my question is will your book have anything to offer me other than diversion?

OK, as someone who works in publishing (albeit not trade publishing) and libraries, I’d like to strongly recommend trying HARD to get an agent and traditional publisher before going the self-pub/POD route.

Yes, you already have a platform of people who will buy, and you will get more money from each copy via POD. But I don’t think you’re in it for the money, it seems that more you want to distribute your ideas to a wider audience.

Publishers have two basic things: access to distribution channels and marketing expertise. Actually, the distribution is probably much more important. A self-published book has basically zero chance of being carried by bricks-and-mortar bookstores, reviewed by major review sources, or bought by libraries. You can get noticed on Amazon as a self-pubbed title but you have to lobby HARD. And in order to get decent sales from people other than your blog readers, you have to market HARD to be taken seriously as a self-pubbed author. You seem to do pretty damn good marketing this blog, but you don’t seem to be too into self-promotion or traditional marketing. You might be able to make it work–you have an amazing ability to go after goals in an unconventional, rational way. But you’d have to be truly interested in actually marketing the thing. YMOYL was self-pubbed, but they had a seminar series that helped them constantly reach new people.

Just my two cents. I think reaching a new audience will be a helluva lot easier if you go the traditional route.

“Gold” is where you find it. To me you are pure “Gold”, in your ability to create information (actionable) from data. I am already retired, but your insights have opened a whole new world. For me, your insight & reasoning ability is truly valuable. The media world is full of junk books, blogs, websites, etc. I suspect most people would not recognize how valuable this book can be, for opening up new ways of thinking and being. I put $40.00 on the survey, but upon reflection, I would pay more.

Honestly, I have no idea what I’d pay. First I’d need to know what it’s about. If it seems worthwile reading, I could easily spend $30. In fact the price won’t matter but up to $30 seems reasonable to me.

That said, I had the same idea as Chris and would consider buying just out of sympathy.

I wont be paying for it, I’ll wait til its free in the library or any other cheap way I can get it. You wouldnt pay full price for it would you?

Why not just self publish and sell it as an e book? Whats all the fuss about?

@evors – You can buy ISBNs from Bowker (see isbn.org). Getting it into catalogs either requires footwork. With a PoD they will often list them for a fee.

I submitted my vote…
I just wanted to say, think really hard about the title…
So far, my experience has been that great/memorable people have either very unique names/characteristics or very easy to pronounce/remember names. Think about it 😉

The library?!? C’mon you guys, let’s help support Jacob!:) This book is going to be more in-depth and coherent than anything on the blog. It’s going to be organized and all-in-one-place. It will be portable, so you can share it with family/friends, you can write in it and take notes in it…

I’ve been a regular reader for a shorter length of time than some of you here, but I can tell the real deal when I see it and there aren’t many “real deals” out there – I’m not just talking authenticity, I mean value, insight, vision, etc. all-in-one. I know many of you know this…

Jacob has deliberately withheld ads from the site in favor of building a stickier audience/community and probably a higher traffic blog. I don’t want to say anybody “owes” him something, but for all the value (and/or entertainment) you get from reading this blog – just imagine each blog post at twenty cents each – you’ve probably read over 250 posts – that’s easily $50 right there.

Anyways, I’d probably pay in the $35-$39 range easily – at the very least, to buy it as a gift for someone who’s not online all the time like we are. Read it yourself, then give as a gift. It will help bring more readers to the blog, and develop a larger base for future e-book sales, too, if Jacob does that.

I would pay €20 if delivered at my door in Belgium.
I suppose the print will be small, because that way you need less paper. But I find bigger print much more comfortable reading.

i am interested to see how others voted. i put down $20. the reason being is at a $20 price point you should be able to make money and not deter anyone from “pulling the trigger”

What were the results of this?

I always prefer a book to an ebook. I usually print out e-books for later reading. Web pages and blogs disappear, but a good book stays in my bookshelves for re-reading and such.

I don’t know if I could go very minimalist. I am a person who likes my things a lot. I am not someone who buys something and then forgets about it. A few times a year I go through my stuff and look at it and enjoy it. Knick-knacks bring back fond memories in a tactile way. I am probably the opposite of Jacob, but I still love reading about ERE and considering if I could make it work for me.

I don’t buy a lot of new things, and get a lot of my things that I love by trading or accepting hand me downs. But my hobbies require a good amount of space, and so do my husbands. That is not to say I couldn’t appreciate ways to retire earlier anyways.