Nathan - congrats buddy!

There are a few key takeaways anyone who has a product, or wants to create a product, should take note of.

* Email lists are very, very important. I was also able to market my freelancing book to 2,000+ freelancers on my Planscope list. Like Nathan with his weekly list, I had a huge head start.

* Additionally, the theory that you can't sell to the HN audience is bunk. When I wrote a post similar to Nathan's about how I netted $2k in presales, I made another $1k that day alone off HN traffic. And I'm absolutely certain that Nathan is making sales right now from HN. Something to keep in mind: HN doesn't like being sent to marketing sites. HN wants immediate and direct value. So instead of just showing off your latest product, put together a post about what technical or promotional hurdles you went through putting together your product - i.e., sell through education. Look at my submissions to see this in action for both my products.

* Increase customer LTV wherever possible. You could pay Nathan $29 for the book, which triggers as an OK price to pay for most of us. Now that you're interested, for $30 more you can get some videos and PSDs. These people came for one thing and left with another, the same underlying theory supermarkets use to upsell you at the checkout line.

* Nathan now has a mailing list of people who have already taken out their credit cards for him in the past. This is pure gold.

Update: I am now at $11,536.90 in less than 24 hours of sales. I guess I can cross "Make $10,000 in one day" off my bucket list!

I just bought the book and the preview chapter is what convinced me that the book was worth owning. The content was new to me and it was obvious you've put in a lot of effort. I'm just at the beginning stages of iOS development and I thought reading your book now will be a good start to get me thinking differently about app development.

I contributed to that $6k with a book purchase today. Nicely done Nathan!

How much of this marketing for an ebook do you think applies for a conventional book launch through a publisher? I guess that question also applies to any other tangible product for that matter?

I have a question, for you Nathan, or even anyone who has published an ebook. Do you think a large portion of your success is due to the commercial nature of the book? (You help people make better apps, which makes them money) Or, is it just one among many factors?

I ask because I am contemplating writing an ebook, but it's more of a self-help-style book. Nothing cheesy, I promise. But the premise is more of "I'll help you accomplish X" rather than "I'll help you build beautiful apps/achieve Y technical feature."

Thanks a ton, and good luck.

Nathan, I almost completely missed this. I woke up to it on HN. Yes, I did get your email yesterday around 8:30am but when I read it on my iPhone, I skimmed right to the center section, with the 4 icons, which is now my routine after getting it for months. Your book has been coming for a while so didn't actually notice that it shipped.

Anyway, I'd suggest a more prominent headline in your next newsletter, or even include the different versions. Heck, why not just dedicate half an issue to discussing it?

During the gold rush the people who made money were the ones who sold the tools. Same logic applies here. (nothing against that btw it is just how it works)

Awesome article.

Question about Gumroad - it looks like you are able to make purchases directly from your site http://nathanbarry.com/app-design-handbook/ and not have to be directed to https://gumroad.com/l/AppDesign. Is this the norm for Gumroad or did you have to add anything custom to the process?

This is a fantastic article, I learned a ton.

Unfortunately when I went to buy the product, it dead locks chrome at 100% process usage, and it breaks scrolling in a bad way.

I also don't like the pricing: - give me an obvious choice like the Economist. At the bottom there should be a launch day offer for $80 that gives me the full package for being a pre-review adopter. I need your product, but as it stands there was no clear package to choose.

I'm always happy when a geek makes money, way to go!

I emailed you this morning, read your blog entries and bought the book about 20 minutes later.... very good stuff.

Awesome stuff.

Two things I thought would significantly boost your sales:

1) Try book reviews by bloggers 2) Run deals on AppSumo, etc?

No money to be made in the App store, much to be made teaching people how to build apps. Kudos.

Love that you used Gumroad for the sales. :)

Great post Nathan. What tools did you use to author the ebook and are you looking beyond pdf format?

Congratulations Nathan. Great article, great landing page for your book too.

I just bought a copy. Looking forward to great designed apps.

You've probably heard the following parable:

Little Bull: "Let's run down the hill and make sweet love to a couple of cows."

Big Bull: "I got a better idea, let's walk down and make sweet love to them all."

When you have content of a transient nature, you got to get the going while the going is good. An ebook launch like this will get the job done.

However, if you write a book that will blow people's minds and change a culture or an industry forever, you don't need the big launch. The name of your book will be whispered into the ears of others for a long time. You will get your sales.

The latter is a lot harder to do, but I'm hoping I can do just that.

Watch this space.