I know how it is, i only managed to leave my "real" job when my "side" things amounted to 22x salary the real job. Should have done it sooner, in retrospect.

You typoed the URL.

It's ironic because early on, people saw the video but didn't have the link, so his Kickstarter basically showed a huge flood of organic traffic to the campaign.

Thank you. Fixed.

Very nice and congratulations :D

Would you mind writing a bit about how you got it in the market, do you run ads for it, etc?

I just got super lucky. I launched it on Kickstarter and did a post on /r/arduino the day of the launch that just kind of blew up over there, and that got me to my 10k funding goal on the first day. Then someone stole the video and crossposted on LinkedIn, and that REALLY blew up. The post got like 1M views or something. They didn't share a link to the Kickstarter or anything, so I was getting a lot of traffic but it looked like it was all showing up as direct/search traffic, because people had to go to google and actively seek out the book. Halfway through the campaign I brought on an ad agency that just does Kickstarter campaigns, and I had a pretty good experience with them as well. The campaign ended at just under $250k.

Since then I've continued to take pre-orders and have just been doing facebook ads. I expect that when people start getting their books, that will help drive a lot more traffic, and then I hopefully won't have to be so reliant upon facebook ads.

Oh so at this point it’s unclear what you’ll receive as personal income from the project?

I have a pretty good idea of what my take home will be for all the current preorders. But who knows when the well will dry up.

Awesome, thanks for sharing!

Fascinating!

I'm working on a book as well, but for the Frontend. I'm very curious to know more about how you marketed this?

I know it's a different niche, but is there any globally applicable advice you'd give?

I think the book has a really high virality factor. I was able to do a few posts on reddit, and people would like and share it. It's that whole "product market fit" thing. If you have a good product that people need or want, then marketing is pretty easy, and word of mouth (whether online or in real life) drives way more sales than anything else.

That's awesome! And agreed, there is nothing better than natural fit/wom marketing. Congrats!

Making money from books is hard in general. OP found a great niche and amazing market fit. For frontend books, you will have tough competition not just from other similar books, but also bootcamps, free tutorials etc.

Great idea. Selling educational materials might honestly be the best option for people in tech where our employers often own our code IP by default due to our contracts.

I actually bought this, and got one from the first batch. Great book, my 3 year-old loves playing with it. Definitely recommend.

This is amazing, a fantastic idea! Well done.

How did you take it from idea to production? Do you have a design or print production background?

I’ve designed one or two circuit boards in the past but that’s about it. I did a lot of prototypes to get things to work the way I wanted it and then working with a manufacturer in China that was very patient with me while we work out all the bugs.

How does the whole designing, printing actually works in this case? So the manufacturer would send a prototype and you would test it, make sure it meets your quality requirements and then give a go ahead? The to and forth would also take lot of time!

I am really interested in learning more about this and your journey

I actually bought this, and got one from the first batch. Great book, my 3 year-old loves playing with it.

Preordered one of these since it looks great

Thank you!

Amazing! Just placed an order. Im expecting my first child in May, so I couldn’t resist.

Oh, thank you!!

I remember coming across this when you posted about it before. Congrats on the success!

Thank you!

It made me think that 555 timers for babies would be a fun book to write too...

This is great! I just ordered one for my niece :)

Ordered.

My kids will love it.