The Adventure Begins... Tejas A La Tierra

[philipbarrett]

There's a problem with question #2. You need to add a "select other" check box to validate the typing in the text field. Without that the form rejects the question as unanswered.

[skiphunt]

Originally Posted by troyfromtexas

I have really enjoyed sharing stories and photos with each of you through my blog TheAdventureBegins.tv. Your views, comments and support have been a great encouragement to me. Who would have thought that anyone would show an interest?

Almost on a daily basis I receive feedback in person or though my website about traveling in general or about my adventures. And often people ask me... what is next?

Well... I have been thinking about writing a book. But I have been wondering if anyone, other than my mother, might buy and read a book about my travel experiences. So I thought that I would try to survey you... my family, friends and fellow adventurers.

Would you take one minute to complete this five question survey? I promise that it will take less than 30 seconds. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Don't worry, you would not be under any obligation to buy a book at this time, I'm just asking questions and trying to gauge interest.

Click here to answer... The Survey

Cheers,

Troy

Hey Troy, I've only had a short look around your site and I'm sure folks would buy your book... but I'd like to offer a suggestion from my own experience.

Unless you can get pre-orders and produce your book in bulk, it's tough to get the unit cost down to where you can tack on much margin and still sell the book. It's worth having a hard copy for sure. However, I think you should do two versions. One that's printed and focuses on the photography with some text from the trip. And a second one that's only an electronic PDF version. Put all the trip info, tips, how-to's, guide stuff... in that one with only minimal photography to keep the file size down.

With no printing costs, you can sell that at a lower rate and folks thinking of taking similar trip can either print out the parts they want to reference, or travel with your whole guide in PDF form on their phones, laptops, or tablets. You could easily do an iBook or app, but it'd likely be better to keep it more universally readable in PDF. Then, add links to page on your site selling the PDF and/or print version to all your YouTube video descriptions... adding more tags reference the guide book with samples, etc.

And setting up selling digital files off your site is fairly easy. Some outfits charge a monthly fee or take a percentage of the sales. The one I use has been good to work with and they update the back end regularly. It's also free for low-volume, and very reasonable if you go beyond to higher volume.

This is the one I've been using for a couple years: http://www.ecwid.com/?gclid=CI6HtZHvpLcCFVTl7Aod01kAAw

You could also add a link and/or buy button to the hard copy print version within the PDF.

Just some ideas.

[greeneggs&ham]

We just took the survey, it didn't ask "if you would buy this book for my mother".
But we would.. We loved your stories and the pictures. For example, we loved the story of you cooking oriental food for the locals using just the ingredients they provided. You are a very descriptive writer, and had us looking forward to the next chapter. So now we are looking forward to the book.

Sam & Shirley

[troyfromtexas]

Originally Posted by philipbarrett

There's a problem with question #2. You need to add a "select other" check box to validate the typing in the text field. Without that the form rejects the question as unanswered.

Thanks Philip, I looked into it and think that I have resolved the issue.

[troyfromtexas]

Originally Posted by skiphunt

Hey Troy, I've only had a short look around your site and I'm sure folks would buy your book... but I'd like to offer a suggestion from my own experience.

Unless you can get pre-orders and produce your book in bulk, it's tough to get the unit cost down to where you can tack on much margin and still sell the book. It's worth having a hard copy for sure. However, I think you should do two versions. One that's printed and focuses on the photography with some text from the trip. And a second one that's only an electronic PDF version. Put all the trip info, tips, how-to's, guide stuff... in that one with only minimal photography to keep the file size down.

With no printing costs, you can sell that at a lower rate and folks thinking of taking similar trip can either print out the parts they want to reference, or travel with your whole guide in PDF form on their phones, laptops, or tablets. You could easily do an iBook or app, but it'd likely be better to keep it more universally readable in PDF. Then, add links to page on your site selling the PDF and/or print version to all your YouTube video descriptions... adding more tags reference the guide book with samples, etc.

And setting up selling digital files off your site is fairly easy. Some outfits charge a monthly fee or take a percentage of the sales. The one I use has been good to work with and they update the back end regularly. It's also free for low-volume, and very reasonable if you go beyond to higher volume.

This is the one I've been using for a couple years: http://www.ecwid.com/?gclid=CI6HtZHvpLcCFVTl7Aod01kAAw

You could also add a link and/or buy button to the hard copy print version within the PDF.

Just some ideas.

Skip, thanks for the suggestion. My sister had the same suggestion. I was thinking about this today and I think that it might be a good approach.

[troyfromtexas]

Originally Posted by greeneggs&ham

We just took the survey, it didn't ask "if you would buy this book for my mother".
But we would.. We loved your stories and the pictures. For example, we loved the story of you cooking oriental food for the locals using just the ingredients they provided. You are a very descriptive writer, and had us looking forward to the next chapter. So now we are looking forward to the book.

Sam & Shirley

Thanks Sam

[Tourmeister]

Originally Posted by greeneggs&ham

We just took the survey, it didn't ask "if you would buy this book for my mother".
But we would.. We loved your stories and the pictures. For example, we loved the story of you cooking oriental food for the locals using just the ingredients they provided. You are a very descriptive writer, and had us looking forward to the next chapter. So now we are looking forward to the book.

Sam & Shirley

That part really stood out for me as well!

I also really liked that you were able to take time to explore the areas you visited rather than just passing through. The museums, architecture, local history, etc,... were all really cool. Also liked the Antarctic trip!

[troyfromtexas]

Originally Posted by Tourmeister

That part really stood out for me as well!

I also really liked that you were able to take time to explore the areas you visited rather than just passing through. The museums, architecture, local history, etc,... were all really cool. Also liked the Antarctic trip!

Thanks Scott, I always appreciate your comments and support.