Well, thanks for reading.
You might be a regular or you might be one of the 47% of readers each time I blog that is new to this site.
You may be a lovely tea person, or you may be a filthy spammer.
For this exercise, it doesn’t matter.
I’d like to think some people enjoy my blog. Not as much as I enjoy pontificating or ranting, but enough to come back.
Imagine a whole book of it.
In a very poorly kept secret, I have been assembling a book of tea stuff using my own unique style. It’s fiction disguised as fact, fact hidden within fiction, brickbats and bouquets in equal measure. It tells you why everyone from George Orwell to my Mother-in-law is wrong about tea. It explodes myths and makes up some new ones. Tales of heroes and rogues, 50 snippets of stuff from recipes to fiction; a curiously curated collection of stuff I felt like writing.
About 10% of it has turned up previously on various blogs. So it’s mostly new.
So tell, me, Dear blog reader: Would you buy it?
Online? If I came to your town. At a bookstore? At a tea shop. For $20? $200? Yes, if it tastes like tea?
Please tell me! This is market research at it’s finest.
.
hmmm would i buy a book about tea???
probably… but it would have to be entertaining, (that you do do well)
it would have to be visually enticing… this blog the colours are well ….tea like… so would have to ramp up a bit…
the cost would have to be under $30 ..poor uni student here
i buy face to face and online and at bookstores so all are useful
a bonus would be if it came with a teabag ready to brew a nice cuppa while reading… (hurriedly ducks coz she put tea and bag together as a word and can feel the flames shooting from devotea’s nostrils… )
Or a sample of tea leaves to brew… I am fond of the Chai brew… 😉
People who want peoples advice should be careful it may just raise one’s blood pressure… lol
any that is my 2cents worth!!
Since I have always thought your two cents priceless, I would certainly make a purchase. If we are talking hard copy $15.00 would be a good investment providing it contained your autograph :-).
I have made space on my Tea shelf for this masterpiece along side Two Tigers.
I’ll go along with @jojp on this one. Autograph essential. Mind you, now I have been given a Kindle…
Autograph yes, and I’ll give you a few more hours of wonderful, free blog maintenance and tender loving store care in exchange for a book. 😛
I’d want an ebook (PDF, or kindle) and for 10-20$ depending how long it is
I own a bookstore and tea bar, I write books, and I have a shelf full of tea books, so I’m not exactly an unbiased audience. Given that, yes, I’d want to see that book.
You’d have to address a few of my pet peeves, though, like misuse of the word “fermented” and the bizarre health claims that are associated with certain tea styles.
Great news for you, Gary.
The word ‘fermented” does not appear, nor does “oxidised” for that matter. As for health claims, the only one it makes is that I expect to be awake for five months longer over my lifetime due to my mammoth tea consumption. I suggest this is a good thing, although upon reflection; all these extra months are probably spent in the bathroom.
I also claim that under certain circumstances tea is bad for your health, such as if you are a customs and excise officer in England in the 1700s and you’ve confiscated a heavily-armed gang’s stash of tea.
No wild claims, virtually no bits about tea lying about in heaps fermenting/oxidising/rotting/maturing/turning black. Sounds like your sort of book.
So, on that basis, I’ll put you down for a few dozen.
Good old paper book and for the price, it depends on how big it is.
The autograph is really a must.
YES!!! Of course I would buy your book. I would first prefer in digital format such as Kindle. I find reading on the Kindle far less cumbersome than a physical book. I am also more likely to purchase a book on the Kindle than I am in physical form. However, of course in your case I would make an exception. Here is what I think I would do… buy the book for the Kindle and read it there. I would also buy a physical book with the hopes that I would someday meet you with book in hand so that I may ask you to autograph it for me.
Hope this helps.
I would definitely be a ready purchaser. $20 tends to be the upper side of my comfort zone unless there’s a really compelling reason for more (large scale coffee table book, for example.) I hope you move forward.
I’d steal it from you in Vegas.
If it’s an ebook there’s 100% probability that I will buy it.
If its paper and the price (including postage etc) is reasonable compared to what I get there is a good change that sooner or later it will be part of my not so small tea book collection.
I really must thank all of you who have commented here so far, as well as on Facebook, twitter and Google+ .
It’s been interesting to read all that you have to say. Some people have seen it as a general conversation starter to gauge a level of interest; some have seen it as a more direct “how much should I charge” post. Responses to both are illuminating.
I certainly believe that it will at least have some wiling acquireres.
The price comments are interesting to me. In Australia the average price for a novel is about $29.95, with discount shops having them for about $25. A book such as this would probably be about the same. This is because of the quite protectionist copyright laws here; although the net result is that many books are no purchased from sites such as Amazon for a fraction of the cost. And most of my market will be in the USA or Europe, I suspect.
So, whilst my concentration right now is on the final edit and sharpening up the content – and perhaps a new title – I will take all of the comments into account.
Robert, will it be digital or paper? Are you self publishing?
Yes (eventually) , Yes (soon), Yes
Good, sounds like everyone’ll be happy then.