Blogpodcast: Kathy Sierra | Creating Passionate Users
(a keynote presentation at O'Reilly TOC)
Can authors and publishers make money with a new book?
...the reality is that only 5% of all books are profitable.
This was not acceptable formula to feed the family after dot-com bust,
so she and her husband "reverse engineered" what makes successful books
based on Amazon.com reviews. Then, they used the "formula" to produce best-seller "Head First" series of books for many years and many books...
Idea: "Don't make a better Java book,
make a better Java programmer!"
Result: #1 sales in Java programming books @ Amazon
books that actually get readers to write programs,
instead of just learning about writing programs.
And the formula is... (watch the video :)
Video @ TOC
Could this successful idea be extended to all product and services?
"Make products that customers actually want to use to get better,
more successful, instead of to just have a product."
Yes, sometimes "using" is to be able to brag that you "have" a Lexus,
but if most owners actually like "driving" BMW that is a best advertising.
That is how BMW can be a successful business and not very large.
That is how Apple can sell as many iPads as they can make,
because "apps" empower users...
OK, so this is nothing new, I guess, so I tried to "google it"...
products that people want to use, not just to have
Some interesting links found so far:
- How to start a Startup by Paul Graham
- How to Fix Microsoft "go lean, and listen to your customers"
- Creating a product that sells itself
- Don’t Sell Technology, Sell Magic
- Steve Jobs @ Wikiquote
- What I Learned From Steve Jobs - How to Change the World by Guy Kawasaki
- Google user experience
- What Wikipedia is not
