What should the Systematic Mixing eBook cost?

[OneDaySky]

$25 for the ebook or a $40 option which includes a video tutorial

 

[angryoldsoundguy]

Well, the smart thing would be to charge a bunch when you release. Then charge less over time depending on if you are making enough money to justify all the work.

Then do a holiday sale where for a day you can get the book for 25% to 30% off.

 

[AdamG94]

I think $25 is a very fair price. Also then it'd competitive against the 'Zen and Art of Mixing' and 'Mastering Audio' (Bob Katz) which in my opinion is what you should be looking to be doing, since you should benefit from your work on the ebook.

 

[Williamn]

vote for 15$ here.
Don't feel a ebook is worth much more unless its really special.

But then again I have no idea how the quality of your whole book is

 

[Mesa4x12er]

Bout tree fiddy

 

[Damian B]

I'd buy it for $20.

 

[fatalforce]

Ermin, can you clarify if this is USD or aussie dollars?

 

[Djentkitty]

$15 would be my vote

 

[Ermz]

I voted $25, so far the poll is being about as useful as rake. Pretty much an even split! Also people who voted $5, loosen the purse strings a little!

Haha, I thought much the same at first. I think we're getting a pretty good picture now though. Partially wanted to show names on the poll so you could name and shame the cheapskates, but thought better of it in the end

Ermz: I'd do it like this: sell the e-book for 15 bucks, but post a stripped down version as free blog posts/PDFs on your website. I don't really care about the content because I dont work in rock production anymore, so my advice comes from a "generating attention and creating image/trustability/credibility"-point of view. I'd actually post it all for free chapter by chapter, but that's just me. Btw: listening to your website audioplayer in the background and there's some seriously good shit in there. Both songwriting and production-wise!

That's a cool idea, and I sort of took a similar approach by putting two major chapters out here on the public forum as a teaser of sorts. They're still useful individually of the book, but when combined people will gain a more holistic benefit.

Thanks for the kind words on the clips btw. I'm surprised, actually thought those wouldn't be up your alley at all.

+1 to the price - as for the video, I would definitely prefer the majority of the content be in the form of text, because I can't stand the tutorial videos of dudes just talking, boooorrrriinnggg However, accompanying video demonstrations of the effects of various processing and the like would of course be extremely useful (and in that case, I would say $25 is fair)

I'd love to do video tutorials or accompaniments at some stage - but they're a bit outside the scope of this guide at the moment. The guide itself is a significant undertaking - adding videos to it would mean a few to several more months before release, and I'd like to get this thing out ASAP.

Perhaps down the track I can release video guides as accompaniments, if enough people want them.

Thank you all for your input. It's been very helpful. I'm now hovering toward $15 AUD (best to use my native currency in order to balance the books easier). That's only ~$16 USD at the moment, so the conversion is almost 1:1 for such a low sum.

We'll see how it shapes up after the last 3 chapters are written, but at the moment that seems quite fair for everyone, I think!

 

[Empathy]

I'd be happy to pay $15-20 for it, after my car just chewed $1800 out of my pocket

 

[LeSedna]

- if it only contains texts, and only knowledge, 15 AUD is okay (I am one of those who does not like paying more if it is not a physical book especially considering a PDF needs no impression/intermediary charges, unless it is massive and worth it's massiveness)
- if it is very well presented (pictures, ergonomy, colours, easy for the eyes) you can add a few AUD easily, like +5=20 AUD. You can do it with Word nowadays if you're okay with Photoshop.
- if ever you do videos later, you could add 10 AUD easily. But do "efficient" videos, with no blabla, good examples, with only short videos. 15mn videos to explain one thing with various examples is extremely boring. Many 1 to 3 minute videos, edited and fast would be more useful. Longer videos are only good for general/philosophical speaking, or comparisons, but not for very technical points. One could ask to himself how to so something, and knows there is a fast video with the good title ("side-chaining.mpg") in his folder that he can watch quickly.

 

[Sloan]

WILL THERE BE PICTARS!?!!!

 

[Fbarre]

We're talking about year long experience right? 50$ If it has a nice cover, graphics and some pictures otherwise I would say 35$.

 

[Star Ark]

If it's a dedicated metal mixing ebook I think you can get away with charging plenty. How many metal specific mixing books are there available at the moment? My google search didn't find any.
I'm sure it will be a great read, I'll buy it!

 

[Ermz]

What sort of pictures would you guys like to see? I can take screen captures of plug-ins running various settings to illustrate certain points, or snaps of gear to stay visually topical, but otherwise I can't think of any ways to use photos outside a supportive context.

 

[Ensi]

What sort of pictures would you guys like to see? I can take screen captures of plug-ins running various settings to illustrate certain points, or snaps of gear to stay visually topical, but otherwise I can't think of any ways to use photos outside a supportive context.

What you said. Also just add some pictures that are slightly relevant because it is more fun to read a page with pictures, even if they don't relate 100%

 

[Pinebox]

Not to undercut everyone but I think it should be $5-10. I feel like it is hard to keep anything on the internet from being pirated and its only a matter of time before it shows up on a torrent site or something. But if the price is low, people may be more willing to shell out a quick $5-10 to get it legit than to pirate it. Just something to consider. I know it seems like a ridiculously low price but you got to find the balance point, if the price is too high, many people will just say "fuck it"

Well, the smart thing would be to charge a bunch when you release. Then charge less over time depending on if you are making enough money to justify all the work.

Then do a holiday sale where for a day you can get the book for 25% to 30% off.

This is also something to consider.


Just my $0.02

 

[Audiosprite]

WILL THERE BE PICTARS!?!!!

no nudes of ermz -> no buy

 

[smy1]

That's a cool idea, and I sort of took a similar approach by putting two major chapters out here on the public forum as a teaser of sorts. They're still useful individually of the book, but when combined people will gain a more holistic benefit.

Thanks for the kind words on the clips btw. I'm surprised, actually thought those wouldn't be up your alley at all.

No, I was suprised that most of them were totally cool musically (as in: good songwriting). I don't listen to much electronic music at home, because I make so much. So it's usually either, pop, rock, hiphop or metal for me.

I think you should add a blog to your site, and post stuff there too. The point of that being that the Sneap-forum is a somewhat closed microcosmos that some of your potential clients won't ever find.

Post snippets of the book in regular updates. Maybe just one paragraph of a chapter as in "How to clean up the snare mids" or sth. Then link people to the instant download page (with lots of testimonials from folks like Bob Rock, Joey Sturgis and Kerry King) of the e-book.

 

[xTomx]

Whatever you do, PLEASE include audio examples to demonstrate your points.