It's ok to make a Show HN out of a book, as long as it's a real book and users can 'try it out' by reading part of it for free.

https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

Hey @pl0x, the reason why I wrote this book is to help people in their tech careers. Sorry if I broke some rule or anything. I thought that it would be nice to get some feedback about the first chapter and the site.

Wanting to get paid for a book he wrote is a bad thing? I get it - from each according to their capability - to each according to their needs. Sound familiar?

Nobody said it's a bad a thing. The bad thing is claiming he wrote it to help people without mentioning the monetary motivator. This is dishonest, end of story.

Wanting to help people and charging for it are completely separate topics. There's absolutely nothing dishonest about it.

That's extremely cheap for a book. Do you work for strangers for free?

I don't claim to write books to help people, without mentioning the monetary incentive. That is a common, and very dishonest tactic.

I agree that it's cheap. Or priced to what the market might bear, depending on your perspective.

Did you notice that there's no big publisher behind this? No book agents. No team of editors. Just one guy trying to put together some ideas to inspire others.

I hope one day you go through the process of self-publishing a book to better understand the motivations behind it.

Are you putting it together purely to help people? If so, why are you charging for it?

When I make a website and put ads on it where revenue exceeds the costs, I don't try to put forth the work as a philanthropic effort, that's all I am saying.

To address your other comment - what makes these separate topics? Either you are doing this philanthropically, for revenue (or reputation / career aspirations), or both. There is nothing wrong with doing both, but presenting it as purely philanthropic is a cheap marketing tactic.

Anyway, let's end this - I didn't mean to single you out, and I apologize for seeming that way.

What's wrong with that, as opposed to promoting your app?

its literally marked as "Show HN"