Changes, and A Question
I’m in the process of revising the blog from it’s beginning until now. So far I’ve only revised the first 5 posts or so, but eventually the whole blog will be rewritten. I’m going to add a note to each blog post as I revise it, letting people know that the post is a revised version rather than the original version. If I choose to delete a post altogether, I will put up a new blog warning which blog posts are queued for deletion to give people time to save or print them if they want.
And of course, all revised and deleted posts will always be available in their original forms over at The Wayback Machine, so they’ll never truly be lost anyway.
Also, I’m starting a new policy of only allowing comments on the most recent blog posts, and as existing posts get older and new posts appear, I will keep closing comments. Many old posts had neverending comments that were going nowhere and were totally circular, or had just gone off into batshit insane directions.
Furthermore, I had a recent donations and support post up as a sticky, but it was honestly kind of a bust. I didn’t raise what I needed in order to redesign the sight and update to a better server. I have a personal policy of setting up the site in such a way that it pays for all of its own expenses and upkeep, from the reading I have to do for it to the design, site maintenance, and server issues. Even though this blog is primarily a hobby and not a livelihood, I don’t want it to actually cost me money either.
So now I have to consider other options, since while the site covers the current expenses, it doesn’t generate enough to cover the upgrades I would like to do. Yohami mentioned an idea I hadn’t considered, in a comment:
BTW. You should start a fund on kickstarter (or something on the like) and take a year to write a book. I’d back that for sure.
Is this something people would be interested in? In the past I mentioned on this blog that I was planning to write a book, with the planned title Instincts of the Herd, but I never ended up doing so because I went through a major seismic shift in my worldview and beliefs, where I didn’t believe the things I used to believe, but I wasn’t quite sure what my new worldview was, or where it was headed. Now that I’ve mentally setttled down some, I feel I have a much better grasp of my current worldview and the overall framework of my current belief system, so I wouldn’t mind returning to the idea of a book. I just never considered the idea of raising the money for the book first, then taking the time to write it (and I honestly don’t think it would take me a whole year to complete either).
So my question to you guys is this: is this something you would be interested in seeing from me, and if I started a Kickstarter for the purpose of completing a book within a set time frame, would you donate to it, in return for a copy of the completed book once it’s done? If so, I’ll start researching how to go about doing that. I just wanted to put out feelers before coming myself to that.
Also, if I was to do this undertaking, it would not mean that I would stop the blog or put it on hiatus during the writing process.
The last thing, I’ve been consistently updated the Recommended Reading page, and hope to have it finished by the end of the month. Go check it out.
Yes!
If the way the kickstarter worked was basically “pay to fund this book and you’ll receive a copy when I’m done writing it by X date” so you’re basically getting the money upfront instead of after, I’d be OK with that.
Yes, that was the plan.
Yuuuuup. Id back that.
Yep.
Count me in.
Yep! … but that’s a lot of $20 donations to make it worthwhile.
i will gladly donate $500 for the book.
Leave the original posts as they are. Revise the 10-15 best and/or most popular of your posts. Create an ebook of them using leanpub.com. (As you continue revising, you can easily add more chapters/posts to the ebook later.)
Now add a prominent sales pitch/link to the original posts:
“Included in the Book of Rawness: An improved and revised version of the above post is included along with 14 other updated posts and essays in my new e-book. Click here to read it on your Kindle or tablet — only $14.99.”
If you are going put in the work of revising posts, you might as well get paid for it. And this way you’ll have an ebook to sell within a short time frame, giving you additional income without having to beg for donations.
Would be buying that book, no doubt.
Yeah I’d back it.
Absolutely. I’ve always thought the monster 5-part post responding the the reader letter should be a Kindle single for a couple bucks. A full book would be awesome.
If this happens, you should look into self-publishing. Traditional publishing is dying and they completely take advantage of authors. James Altucher breaks it down pretty well.
Keep us posted.
Yep, I’d be interested for sure.
What would the book be on, more specifically than “The same types of stuff the blog talks about”?
I agree with Zach and Brutal. Why would you take a year to write a book when your five part letter response was 80,000 words long? I’ve said this to you before, I think, but I’ll say it again. Edit *that* into a book, and get it up on Amazon. You have the content, you have the voice, and you have the platform. Kickstart the next project, and give everyone who pays above a certain amount a free copy of your first book to tide them over, and sell it Amazon for $5.99.
I’m also wondering what specifically the book would be about.
Personally, T, I enjoyed and learned a lot more from your blog before you got so much more into the psychology thing. If you really want to write about this stuff, you need to get the educational credentials and go full professional.
If I were you, I’d focus on that and get a few letters after my name before I wrote a book.
Unless this is more of an old-school Rawness book, in which case you can have my money now.
Great idea. I’m going to put more thought into this, but I like it. As far as the revising goes, my idea was more like this: On the blog, I want to revise the posts primarily to shorten them and make them as concise as I can without sacrificing clarity and information. I want to severely reduce wordiness.
However for the type of book you suggest, I will take blog posts and revise with the opposite intent: to flesh out ideas and expand them more fully into book length and follow the strategy you say.
Appreciate the support as always, brother.
Quick point: I never planned to take a full year to write a book. That was Yohami’s idea. My idea was to do it within only a few months.
So you guys have convinced me. Whatever I do first will be a compilation/reworking of blog posts, with enough expansion and revision to make it worth paying for. After that I’ll look into kickstarting a book of all-new material.
I respect your opinion, but I strongly disagree. I don’t think I need to plunk down all that money and get deeper in student loan debt just to get certain letters behind my name just so I can write a book on a topic I feel I know pretty well already. If I write a book and the information in it is horrible, incorrect, or just damaging, that’s one thing. But if the information I put in a book is very useful, correct, and well-done but someone has a problem with it simply because I don’t have the “correct” letters after my last name, I don’t really need that kind of reader.
For those who ask what the book of all-new material will be about, it will probably be a grand unifying theory of what motivates modern men, and how understanding that gives you the tools you need to figure out yourself and others. The goal will be to take a lot of great thinkers, movements, and topics, whether highbrow or lowbrow, and synthesize them into a single framework: including Alfred Adler, Ernest Becker, Otto Rank, Iceberg Slim, Game theorists (not PUAs but actual game theorists in the traditional sense, Heinz Kohut, Tariq Nasheed, Buddhism, Karen Horney, pimp game, terror management theory, neuroscience, addiction literature, and a bunch of other sources.
The idea would be to start from far away with a wide lens, the evolutionary level, and gradually zoom in and work my way toward the individual and his relationships with himself and others.
T, that’s the thing. You’re information is correct and you work has gotten very professional. I think you would do well if you went all in, and with your background might even make some very interesting things happen.
In a field like psychology, you really need the letters if you want to be taken seriously. This is much less about your readers here than those everywhere else. A psychology book written by a ‘layman’ can only go so far, as with all of your writings.
I just feel like you’re putting all the work in without being able to reap all of the benefits. Unless this really is just a hobby for you, which I’m not sure I buy.
And yes, I’d pay for that book.
15$
when do you need them?
Donation accomplished!
acutually the donation has been done 1 hour ago,take things slowly ,cause…a good job
is ..
needed :p
You can do many graduate programs without committing too much time, and you’ll also be able to do research that interests you. I would def donate for your book as long as it didn’t explore your views on hbd.
I’m in…
To anyone who has published an ebook before or knows about publishing one, did you use MS Word or a program like LaTex? What are pros and cons of both? I’ve already gotten one vote for LaTex and I’d like to see what else is out there.
definitely
Look at Sam V with his diploma mill credentials and best selling negativistic treatise on npd. I have learned so many positive things from you T and would agree you don’t need credentials, other than the fact of your large and loyal readership. You looking to publish a mainstream textbook? I think your audience is the layman hungry for information regarding a unifying framework with psychology at the center. I would buy the book when it comes out… Are you hurting and need $ now? It will pay when you release it, I promise you. If you’re not hurting for $, then keep it simple and simply release the book retail on kindle.