Living It Savage (Steve's blog in one e-book)

[Dimitri]

Steve Pavlina ebook with 1000 blog posts « Living It Savage

Living It Savage is a collection of Steve's blog posts in one e-book. All the posts are sorted by chronological order and go from the very first post until the day that Steve released his copyright.

There are 1008 blog posts in total. The e-book is available in the following formats: pdf, epub, mobi, html.

Folks who are interested in printing a clean format of Steve's blog posts will find value in this. You will have access to each blog post in a separate PDF document, as well as one e-book that combines all blog posts in order.

If you carry around an e-reader, it’s wonderful to have these posts on the go and capitalize on otherwise wasted time by reading up on personal growth. I love having immediate access to Steve's blog posts. I also find that reading on e-ink devices is less strenuous and more enjoyable than reading on the computer.

The e-book costs $22 CAD (update: $11 CAD)

You can purchase the e-book here. You will receive the following formats: pdf, epub, mobi, html.
You can download the first 50 pages for free to find out how the e-book renders on your e-reader.

This e-book is not endorsed by Steve. This thread is posted in this board with his permission.

[Fendaril]

Why should we pay $22 for something we can view for free, or create ourselves.

[Weena]

Cool to see someone actually took him up on his offer, Dimitri. Good luck!

[Mounds]

Originally Posted by Fendaril

Why should we pay $22 for something we can view for free, or create ourselves.

I actually think this is a pretty nifty idea. Although it's all free online, it's handy to have it in an e-reader. Even if I can make it myself, I don't think I could do it for $22. Will purchase in the future when I have a bit more time/money

[Dimitri]

Originally Posted by Fendaril

Why should we pay $22 for something we can view for free, or create ourselves.

It only makes sense to pay for free value when it's delivered in a format that isn't already readily accessible or provided by someone else. This e-book is one such format. EmpowerAudio.com is another. The idea is that people who use e-readers would find value in having Steve's blog in e-book format.

The price is something I'm willing to experiment with. However, lowering the price will not necessarily double the demand. Part of letting people know about this e-book on this forum is to find out if the demand for such a product exists.

[machoman]

Is the font size in the book same as the sample text? Well, I kind of expected more for an E-book.
For example, you can make font size as large as Steve's blog posts or you could make font size to about 12-14 in Times New Roman with neat spacing.(Iam assuming the the quality of your book is same as the sample pdf. So let me know if the quality of the book is more than the sample)
This is just my opinion.

[Dimitri]

Originally Posted by machoman

Is the font size in the book same as the sample text? Well, I kind of expected more for an E-book.

What you are talking about is a printer-friendly PDF version. Most e-readers render PDFs exactly like the printer renders them on paper. This means you have a regular sized sheet of paper resized onto a small six-inch screen. Not very readable at 12-point Times New Roman.

Having a text size that is much too large for a printer means that the e-reader will render it normally using its smaller screen. If you view the same PDF document using your e-reader, I believe it will meet your expectations for being organized and neat. However, it probably doesn't come off as a very good first impression on the computer, so I will be working on a printer-friendly version of the PDF.

It should be noted that ePub is the most popular and widely-accepted format for e-readers. ePub was the format in which I originally designed the e-book. It is also the format that comes out looking good both on e-readers and computers. The MOBI and PDF versions were converted from ePub using Calibre.

[James81]

This is a cool idea. I'd even consider paying that ungodly price you have on it.

Until I read the sample and saw how messy it was.

The text size is HUGE, there are no margins, and it's kinda hard to read (little differentiation between titles and text).

If you fix that stuff and post an update, I'll consider it again. I'd love to have a version like this on the kindle.

(I'm still wavering on the price, too. When it comes to Kindle and ebooks, I typically do not pay for books that are more than the standard price -- $9.99 just out of principle.)

[Savage]

Out of curiosity, can you tell me what the word count is for the entire thing?

[James81]

Originally Posted by Savage

Out of curiosity, can you tell me what the word count is for the entire thing?

Yeah, I'm curious about this too. You've been saying for years that there is more than 20 books worth of stuff here for free and I think it's probably more like 70 to 100 books worth (standard book length being around 70K-80K words).

[Savage]

I've never had an accurate count, but I guesstimate about 2M words (2K words per article x 1000 articles). My estimate could be off by quite a bit though since many of my articles are much longer than 2K words.

[Dimitri]

Originally Posted by Savage

Out of curiosity, can you tell me what the word count is for the entire thing?

Total number of words ------- 1 460 499
Total number of characters --- 8 139 423

50K words per book = 29 books
70K words per book = 20 books

This word count includes the 1008 blog posts from Oct 1, 2004 to Dec 15, 2010. It does not include the word count of the twenty-eight blog posts you have posted since that time; nor it does not include the articles, newsletters, audio or video transcripts. Blog post titles and date subtitles are included in the word count along with the actual text.

I converted the ePub file into a text file to remove any markup code and used Notepad ++ to calculate the word count. I scrolled down the file and it seemed like all the posts were there. I believe this is as accurate as we're gonna get.

Most likely your estimate was off because your early posts were not always around 2K. Some posts linked to your articles and podcasts, some linked to interviews and interesting articles, and some were short reviews of The Incredibles.

[Savage]

Originally Posted by Dimitri

Total number of words ------- 1 460 499
Total number of characters --- 8 139 423

50K words per book = 29 books
70K words per book = 20 books

This word count includes the 1008 blog posts from Oct 1, 2004 to Dec 15, 2010. It does not include the word count of the twenty-eight blog posts you have posted since that time; nor it does not include the articles, newsletters, audio or video transcripts. Blog post titles and date subtitles are included in the word count along with the actual text.

I converted the ePub file into a text file to remove any markup code and used Notepad ++ to calculate the word count. I scrolled down the file and it seemed like all the posts were there. I believe this is as accurate as we're gonna get.

Most likely your estimate was off because your early posts were not always around 2K. Some posts linked to your articles and podcasts, some linked to interviews and interesting articles, and some were short reviews of The Incredibles.

Thanks... looks like my guess wasn't too far off, especially when those other items are factored in.

I know my early blog posts were often shorter, but I also have some that are more than 7000 words.

[Cado]

Originally Posted by Savage

Thanks... looks like my guess wasn't too far off, especially when those other items are factored in.

I know my early blog posts were often shorter, but I also have some that are more than 7000 words.

You are a machine, my friend. I dread the day when you get cybernetic implants.

[Fendaril]

Originally Posted by Cado

You are a machine, my friend. I dread the day when you get cybernetic implants.

He would need to do a 30 day trial with them first .

[Savage]

Originally Posted by Cado

You are a machine, my friend. I dread the day when you get cybernetic implants.

It averages to around 4500 words a week, which these days would take me about 4-5 hours. It may seem like a huge time investment in creating content, but it's really not.

If I worked like a machine, I'd create this much content every year.

Hmmm... that would be an interesting year.

[Cado]

Originally Posted by Savage

It averages to around 4500 words a week, which these days would take me about 4-5 hours. It may seem like a huge time investment in creating content, but it's really not.

If I worked like a machine, I'd create this much content every year.

Hmmm... that would be an interesting year.

Yeah, it's really not that much when you get into it. I make it a point to knock out 1,000 words a day on various projects and half the time I exceed that by a couple thousand without thinking about it.

So next year's focus, maybe?

[Dimitri]

The price for Living It Savage has now been bumped down to $11 CAD.

Thank you to everyone who pointed out how unprofessional and disorganized the PDF looked. Both the PDF excerpt and the PDF e-book have now been updated and neatly formatted.

I never went into this to deliver a product I didn't believe in. I've been reading my own e-book for around two months now, so I would know. The difference is that I've been reading using the ePub format. When it came time to sell and convert it to PDF, I admit I did a poor job. This has now been remedied.

The positive side to this is that I successfully used the ready-fire-aim approach. I made available whatever I had and went on to improving it from there. I expect I'll keep making more changes as we go along to provide better value.

Example: I am now including the html version of the e-book along with the other files. The html version is the source from which I created the e-book. Both the ePub and the PDF version were made using this html file. That's where I made sure the code was clean and that the formatting suited me.

I'm not sure how many people will find value in it over the other versions, but it's one more way for me to provide better service.

[Dimitri]

Living It Savage is now available for free to download in PDF or ePub format.

Just in case you want Steve's blog offline on your iPad, Kindle, or other e-reader.

I don't consider this spamming or advertising since it is free and it is the only way to get Steve's blog in ebook format.

www.livingitsavage.com

[Johnny Metal]

I downloaded the pdf version. You did a good job copying and pasting the text, but seeing how there are 2000 pages, without index of titles this pdf is useless.

I also noticed that links don't work, which in some cases makes it impossible to understand what Steve is talking about. Ie: "A few years ago AT&T set some ambitious goals and worked out a strategy that seemed perfectly sound, but they couldn’t execute it well enough, and it (link here)cost them dearly(/link)."

I don't know if you can make the links work, but at least insert the index of titles to pdf to transform it from the block of text into valuable reference book.

[Dimitri]

Hey Johnny. This e-book isn't meant to be printed in its entirety, nor is it meant to be read on the computer.

It is meant to be read on an e-reader such as an iPad and a Kindle. Using those devices, you would transfer the ePub version of the file, which would give you a complete table of contents both on the iPad and the Kindle. Problem solved!

Why the PDF version? Because some people are still very comfortable with that format. It is also an efficient way to print multiple Steve Pavlina posts in a row (such as his raw foods daily posts). One simply has to use the search function to find the post and input the page number into the Print screen.

Besides, the way I used this e-book was to be able to read Steve's entire blog from beginning to finish without hurting my eyes from computer strain and using an e-reader instead. In that case, a table of contents wouldn't be useful and I would just use an iPad or a computer if I needed a specific article.

As for the links, they never played an important part in Steve's blog. Besides his blog posts on humour, Steve never makes a habit of delegating his articles to others and prefers to have all-original content on his blog. In fact, the older his blog got, the less links he used. In other words, the newer the post, the less chance there is that you would find a link in it (probably because he realized how valuable back links from him were getting to be).

Not being able to access a link never hindered my comprehension, and I've been reading my own e-book for months now. (1000 articles is a lot.) In your example sentence, the point of the sentence was that the mistake cost them dearly. It isn't necessary to know the details, since that was not the point of Steve's article. For the curious mind, you'd just look up that article on the iPad or the computer you were on, and you're good to go.

Cheers!

[Fred Tracy]

Wait so you aren't selling it anymore? You are giving it away for free?

Why? Just curious.

[Dimitri]

That's right. It's available for free! The Kindle version is still selling in the Kindle Store, but I'm sure that savvy people can easily figure out how to get the free PDF or ePub on their Kindle device.

What incited me to give it away for free was that practically no one was buying (total amount of sales was five people). That made me realize that the money I did get from the occasional rare purchase wasn't worth it. I also discovered I didn't want to be the person who monetizes others' value instead of creating value of his own, especially since I know I'm capable of writing my own value.

Even so, I'm guessing a lot of people aren't taking advantage of this opportunity. For one thing, very few people know about this (that was a key reason that there was so few buyers). Another thing is that there are still only a select group of people who have e-readers and appreciate the value of having Steve's blog in an e-book. For most people, an e-book still says: "cheap person trying to sell me something so that I strain my eyes on the computer".

[ouyang]

For most people, an e-book still says: "cheap person trying to sell me something so that I strain my eyes on the computer".

I see an e-book being a cutting edge format for cutting edge peeps! Was actually thinking recently to plop a whole whack of his articles into a word doc to put onto my reader and *bingo* here you came along. Great timing.

IMO, I think you marketing others' value still equals value.

[Fred Tracy]

You still got five buyers? That's pretty awesome, some decent pocket change at the very least.

[Dimitri]

Haha, over three months or something!

It's funny though, I did send out the intention to receive more money and five minutes later my email notifies me someone just bought my e-book and that $11 has been deposited into my PayPal. That was a pretty sweet moment.

Three of the sales came from Amazon, only two from the actual website. Someone actually predicted that for me before. They said that regardless of the ebook, most of your sales are gonna come big sellers like Amazon and iTunes, unless you have a super huge website. And lo and behold, that's what happened!