My Book Is Now Available

Hey guys. Hope all is well with the FTR folks. I just wanted to drop by and let you all know that I've just published my first book on poker. It's called The Grinder's Manual and it's pretty much a 540 page massive textbook on online NLHE 6-max cash – the form of the game I coach and specialise in. You can find extracts from the book and a full description here:

http://carrotcorner.com/my-book/

Would love to hear from you guys if you have any questions, comments, feedback about the book and would also love just to hear how you're doing in general. If anyone has any ideas about places to promote the book also please let me know. I'm looking to work with as many people as possible to get it more in the public light.

Mods: I hope you don't mind me positing this here. It has been a while since I was a regular contributor on this forum so if it needs to be moved or taken down I understand.

Run good guys.

Carrot Man.

Sup.

Honest opinion? The price kinda narrows your market somewhat. I appreciate £40 is well worth your time, but if I had no idea who you are, I doubt I'd consider buying it.

I'm not taking the piss here, but is £10 profitable? Because if it is, I think you'd shift a shit ton if marketed well. I wouldn't think twice about paying a tenner for it, tbh I'd happily pay the £40 if I could afford it because I know I wouldn't be wasting my money. But I can't see anyone who doesn't have confidence in you paying that much. A tenner, otoh, who cares if it's a write off? I can see it appealing to a very wide market at a tenner, wheras at £40 your market is people who a) have confidence in you as both a player and a writer, and b) already have a solid enough foundation at poker to not consider £40 a heavy hit on their roll, also c) have not too solid a foundation otherwise they're already crushing low stakes.

It feels way overpriced for your market, but I stress that is based on how much I'd be prepared to write off for an unreviewed book from an unknown author.

idk, maybe I'm wrong and I should stfu. Maybe £40 is perfectly reasonable and is just expensive to my lazy benefit ass.

As for marketing, can you be bothered to make a youtube video with a narrative of the first chapter with live hand action to accompony it, or something like that? Maybe give a copy to a friend with a limited foundation of poker, and ask him to put your book into practise, making a youtube video or blog or something to demonstrate how it's improving his poker. He can have links to your book and he can take a cut for any sales driven through him.

Probably should have googled poker e-books before pricing.

Feel free to use that as a review.

Just chiming in to note that I can back Carroters as knowing wtf he's talking about.

For anyone complaining about the price, I don't know what to tell you. You get what you pay for. I get paid more than this book costs to write individual articles on poker, so do with that information what you will.

I get paid more than this book costs to write individual articles on poker, so do with that information what you will.

Yes but you're a world reknown writer. Carroters is an excellent poker writer, but is his name out there beyond FTR and maybe 2+2? idk, maybe it is and people will snap this at £40. It's a perfectly reasonable price, but imo it's not one that many people will pay.

Sorry, I was just trying to throw my honest opinion out there.

Originally Posted by OngBonga

Sup.

Honest opinion? The price kinda narrows your market somewhat. I appreciate £40 is well worth your time, but if I had no idea who you are, I doubt I'd consider buying it.

I'm not taking the piss here, but is £10 profitable? Because if it is, I think you'd shift a shit ton if marketed well. I wouldn't think twice about paying a tenner for it, tbh I'd happily pay the £40 if I could afford it because I know I wouldn't be wasting my money. But I can't see anyone who doesn't have confidence in you paying that much. A tenner, otoh, who cares if it's a write off? I can see it appealing to a very wide market at a tenner, wheras at £40 your market is people who a) have confidence in you as both a player and a writer, and b) already have a solid enough foundation at poker to not consider £40 a heavy hit on their roll, also c) have not too solid a foundation otherwise they're already crushing low stakes.

It feels way overpriced for your market, but I stress that is based on how much I'd be prepared to write off for an unreviewed book from an unknown author.

idk, maybe I'm wrong and I should stfu. Maybe £40 is perfectly reasonable and is just expensive to my lazy benefit ass.

As for marketing, can you be bothered to make a youtube video with a narrative of the first chapter with live hand action to accompony it, or something like that? Maybe give a copy to a friend with a limited foundation of poker, and ask him to put your book into practise, making a youtube video or blog or something to demonstrate how it's improving his poker. He can have links to your book and he can take a cut for any sales driven through him.

Hi Ong,

I appreciate your opinion and you might be right that the pricing is not optimal. I personally feel like it's worth much more than the price, but I undersdtand that this does narrow the market. I am looking to do a lot of publicity and get some reviews written over the next few weeks. I might consider lowering the price if I'm not happy with sales after I've got the book sufficient exposure. Right now it has almost none.

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

Just chiming in to note that I can back Carroters as knowing wtf he's talking about.

For anyone complaining about the price, I don't know what to tell you. You get what you pay for. I get paid more than this book costs to write individual articles on poker, so do with that information what you will.

Thanks man appreciate the support. Where are you writing these days?

Originally Posted by ImSavy

Probably should have googled poker e-books before pricing.

Feel free to use that as a review.

Thanks for the review

Originally Posted by Carroters

Hi Ong,

I personally feel like it's worth much more than the price...

This I have no doubt about.

I hope you have success with this.

Originally Posted by Carroters

Thanks man appreciate the support. Where are you writing these days?

All over the place

Big fan of the Carrot man's vids on Grinderschool when I used to have a sub and he definitely gave me enough to beat 50nl for a couple bb/100 with next to no study. I'm sure this text will therefore be a valuable read for the improving beginner and intermediate, as Carroters is a gifted teacher.

Now the negative bit...

I think the price may be a bit high, as print copies of Janda's excellent book have a cover price of 40 USD. Also not sure if you've done it yet, but it's worth paying out for a copy editor and proof reader before you go full steam with a launch (e.g. I noticed something like a shirt stack detailed on a quick scan, rather than short stack). You could probably get a few of your students to do this in exchange for a free copy, if you haven't already.

I'd strongly consider going with a publisher too if you can find a good one, as they're marketing and selling power can be huge. It's just up to you whether you're happy to do this yourself and take 100% of the sales, or take ~15% of the sales as a royalty (but on a greater selling base). They'll also do the copy ed and proofreading for you, as well as printing - I work for a textbook publisher and you'd be surprised how low the percentage of e-book sales are for us. Unfortunately, it's quite difficult to make a a lot of money writing a book, but there can be a lot of side benefits in terms of your profile and the work that you can win as a result from what I've seen.

Anyway, I'm genuinely wishing you the best of luck with this - you've easily won me a few thousand at the micros in the past by teaching me how to think through problems.

just started playing again. I have bought this book and it is so unbelievably worth the money. it sucked i had to pay VAT on it tho.
i feel like i actually understand why i'm doing things a whole lot more. there was far to many half baked poker concepts in my head that i didn't understand enough to apply.
if you're not willing to pay a few buy ins for a 500 page book aimed at crushing micro and low stakes you're really not that serious about the game imo

Is this book a PDF? Something that I could print pages out of? I'm not a huge fan of reading from computers/tablets etc. I'll want to print some pages. But I'm thinking seriously about buying this book.

Wish you've written this when i couldnt afford paying You for coaching but could bought the book. Might have gain 2-3 years in my poker life . Nice job. Planning another one for macrostakes?