So, do you have a specific marketing plan for getting the word out there about these books?
More specifically, you have access to an entire community rooting for you… how can we help?
(Also, I’ve been convinced by other commenters here—I normally don’t buy physical books anymore, but here I’ll make an exception for ’”fanboyism” and “gifting” purposes).
My advice to people who want to promote the sequences in their new form would be ‘Try lots of things and report back about what works/doesn’t.’ Focus primarily on people who are already interested in science, philosophy, and math (or at least two of those three), and keep in mind that the book will criticize religions quite a bit (e.g., Religion’s Claim To Be Non-Disprovable and posts from ‘Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions’) very early on.
Methods fans may be interested (since they already like Eliezer’s writing style, and Methods itself is ending). Vaniver suggested that diving straight from a 2000-page Eliezer tome (Methods) to an 1800-page one (Rationality: From AI to Zombies) might feel overwhelming without some kind of break, but I still feel this is a good time to get the word out about the eBook. In terms of larger-scale projects, I love the idea of a fan-led effort to annotate Methods and e.g. cross-reference its contents to relevant parts of R:AZ.
If things go well, we plan to market the print volumes (and maybe similar-sized eBooks) in a more robust way, since a 300-page book is a much easier sell than an 1800-page one.
Vaniver suggested that diving straight from a 2000-page Eliezer tome (Methods) to an 1800-page one (Rationality: From AI to Zombies) might feel overwhelming without some kind of break, but I still feel this is a good time to get the word out about the eBook.
I want to point out that I very much agree, and my primary concern is making sure that this audience that is about to evaporate knows about R:AZ (I see why you don’t use R:FAtZ!), and once that is taken care of then there is the tactical question about whether or not R:AZ is released before/with/shortly after the final chapter of HPMoR. I don’t have strong feelings on the tactical question; I guess that a day after is good, but also guess that the same time is about as good.
So, do you have a specific marketing plan for getting the word out there about these books?
More specifically, you have access to an entire community rooting for you… how can we help?
(Also, I’ve been convinced by other commenters here—I normally don’t buy physical books anymore, but here I’ll make an exception for ’”fanboyism” and “gifting” purposes).
My advice to people who want to promote the sequences in their new form would be ‘Try lots of things and report back about what works/doesn’t.’ Focus primarily on people who are already interested in science, philosophy, and math (or at least two of those three), and keep in mind that the book will criticize religions quite a bit (e.g., Religion’s Claim To Be Non-Disprovable and posts from ‘Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions’) very early on.
Methods fans may be interested (since they already like Eliezer’s writing style, and Methods itself is ending). Vaniver suggested that diving straight from a 2000-page Eliezer tome (Methods) to an 1800-page one (Rationality: From AI to Zombies) might feel overwhelming without some kind of break, but I still feel this is a good time to get the word out about the eBook. In terms of larger-scale projects, I love the idea of a fan-led effort to annotate Methods and e.g. cross-reference its contents to relevant parts of R:AZ.
If things go well, we plan to market the print volumes (and maybe similar-sized eBooks) in a more robust way, since a 300-page book is a much easier sell than an 1800-page one.
I want to point out that I very much agree, and my primary concern is making sure that this audience that is about to evaporate knows about R:AZ (I see why you don’t use R:FAtZ!), and once that is taken care of then there is the tactical question about whether or not R:AZ is released before/with/shortly after the final chapter of HPMoR. I don’t have strong feelings on the tactical question; I guess that a day after is good, but also guess that the same time is about as good.