One thing to keep in mind is that—whether or not it should—price suggests quality. The paperback books are cheap (are you selling them at-price?), which makes me think “mass production novel”, rather than “deeply impactful nonfiction”. It might be worth putting out an overpriced high-quality version for this reason alone.
And I would be very happy to buy a high-quality version of the books. I like hard covers. Leather-bound would be impressive.
Yep, there are good reasons to go for a cheaper edition (e.g., people can buy dozens of copies to pass out without breaking bank) and also to go for a more expensive edition. It makes sense to have one version that’s very optimized for affordability (the current version, which is good-quality but roughly at cost), and a separate version that’s optimized for other criteria. My main uncertainty is about which features Less Wrong readers are likely to care the most about, and how much those features are worth to them.
Definitely think it’s a good idea to go for the two optimized versions. Kinda like many (most?) of the classic novels from history: cheap mass edition + luxurious “pro” version. (Not that the content would actually differ between them, unless there’s some good reason for that I’m not thinking of; “Hey, the leatherbound version has more original post text and tangents!”).
One thing to keep in mind is that—whether or not it should—price suggests quality. The paperback books are cheap (are you selling them at-price?), which makes me think “mass production novel”, rather than “deeply impactful nonfiction”. It might be worth putting out an overpriced high-quality version for this reason alone.
And I would be very happy to buy a high-quality version of the books. I like hard covers. Leather-bound would be impressive.
Yep, there are good reasons to go for a cheaper edition (e.g., people can buy dozens of copies to pass out without breaking bank) and also to go for a more expensive edition. It makes sense to have one version that’s very optimized for affordability (the current version, which is good-quality but roughly at cost), and a separate version that’s optimized for other criteria. My main uncertainty is about which features Less Wrong readers are likely to care the most about, and how much those features are worth to them.
Definitely think it’s a good idea to go for the two optimized versions. Kinda like many (most?) of the classic novels from history: cheap mass edition + luxurious “pro” version. (Not that the content would actually differ between them, unless there’s some good reason for that I’m not thinking of; “Hey, the leatherbound version has more original post text and tangents!”).