![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ym-sampler.jpg\" "\\"Your")
<\/a><\/div>\nSpeaking of Powell’s, I’ll be giving a talk at Powell’s Technical Books at 7pm on Thursday, April 15th.<\/strong> (Which also happens to be the fourth anniversary of Get Rich Slowly.) I’d love if you came out and gave me some support. I’m a hesitant public speaker, and if there are some friendly folks in the crowd, that’ll give me more confidence!<\/p>\n And that’s not the only event associated with the book release. No no no. Publishing a book is an exercise in self-promotion, which isn’t something that comes naturally for me. Among other upcoming events:<\/p>\n If you do<\/em> show up for the webcast, you’ll reportedly be able to buy the book from O’Reilly for 40% off (~$13.20) or the e-book for 50% off (~$8.99). If you don’t want to wait that long, you’re in luck. Your Money: The Missing Manual<\/em> is O’Reilly’s “deal of the day” today:<\/strong> You can buy the e-book for just $9.99 by using the code DDYMT. (Note that the e-book edition includes Android, Mobi\/Kindle, PDF, and ePub formats.)<\/p>\n You can always<\/em> get 30% off the print or e-book version of Your Money: The Missing Manual<\/em><\/a> by entering the discount code ABF09 when checking out at O’Reilly’s store.<\/p>\n How can you help make Your Money: The Missing Manual<\/strong><\/em><\/a> a success? Help me spread the word about the book, if you feel so inclined. Tweet about it. Blog about it. Tell your friends about it. As I say, I’m not very good at self-promotion, so I’m counting on you folks to help me. If you like the site, please help me spread the word. It’d mean a lot to me! (And hey \u2014 link back to your favorite GRS post while you’re at it.)<\/p>\n Finally, I wanted to share something I found funny. All of the “missing manuals” have a “missing CD” page, and my book is no exception<\/a>. But somebody made a typo when entering info for Chapter Four (“Defeating Debt”); instead, they’ve credited me with more knowledge than I possess!<\/p>\n Defeating death! I wish. Unfortunately, I do not yet possess the secrets of immortality.<\/p>\n Trent at The Simple Dollar explored the question, “Why would a blogger write a personal finance book?<\/a>” Trent does a good job of covering some of the reasons a blogger might write a book: to reach a different audience, to expand on topics, and so on. I agree with him. I especially<\/i> agree that writing a book is no way to get rich \u2014 slowly or otherwise. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’ve earned less than minimum wage from my own book project, and that’s not likely to change. Plus, I gained twenty pounds. Plus, I gained a cranky wife. Plus, I lost mental balance. You don’t write a book for the fortune and fame.<\/p>\n I’ve had a lot of people ask me why I did write Your Money: The Missing Manual<\/b><\/i><\/a>, and why I wrote that<\/i> book and not something else. (Translated: “Why didn’t you write Get Rich Slowly: The Book<\/i>?”)<\/p>\n It took me a long time to find a book project that made sense. I thought that maybe there was a book in me, but I didn’t know what it was. Over the past few years, I connected with a number of agents and publishers, but it wasn’t until O’Reilly came along with the concept for Your Money: The Missing Manual<\/i> that everything clicked. When I heard their pitch for Personal Finance: The Missing Manual<\/i> (which was what they wanted to call the book), I knew that it was a great fit. I knew my wait was over.<\/p>\n Writing Your Money: The Missing Manual<\/i> offered a number of non-financial benefits, including:<\/p>\n People have begun asking me about a second book, and I’ve been contacted by a couple of publishers regarding other projects. Again<\/i>, none of them really match what I want to do. Now that I have some idea of the publishing process, I want a second book to actually be Get Rich Slowly: The Book<\/i>, just as some expected the first book to be. I want the next book to be story-oriented.<\/p>\n So many personal finance books are written in a vacuum: They’re filled with theoretical Best Practices from economists or financial planners or brokers who don’t really have a feel for real-world personal finance. They don’t take into account the very real impact of human emotions and psychology. I want Get Rich Slowly: The Book<\/i> to feature stories from real people \u2014 not just from me, but from you<\/i>, as well \u2014 dealing with real situations. I want it to highlight successes and failures. I think that’s a large part of what makes this blog unique and useful, and I don’t think there’s another personal finance book out there like that.<\/p>\n But, as I mentioned recently<\/a>, I’m on a self-imposed hiatus from Big Projects. I’m taking some time for myself. The soonest I’d start on a second book is January 1st; if I don’t find an interested publisher, it may take longer than that!<\/p>\n So, why would a blogger write a personal finance book? There are as many reasons as there are bloggers. But for me, it’s because a book lets me expand on my ideas and present them in a unified fashion, because I wanted experience with the publishing process, and because writing the book created perceived legitimacy among traditional media. I certainly didn’t write Your Money: The Missing Manual<\/a><\/b><\/i> for the money. In fact, focusing on the book instead of the blog for so long cost me a pretty penny!<\/p>\n Your Money: The Missing Manual<\/i><\/b><\/a> went to a second printing while I was in Alaska. Not bad for a book that’s only been out for a couple of months!<\/p>\n The book has been doing especially well at Amazon<\/a>, where it’s consistently been in the top 5,000 in sales, and has even creeped into the top 500<\/i>. (I consider this very good for a personal finance manual.) For a brief time, it was even outselling books like Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover<\/i>!<\/p>\n My publisher seems pleased with the book’s sales and with my promotional efforts, but I get the feeling they wish I’d mention it more often here on Get Rich Slowly. But the thing is, I’m not a hard-sell type of guy. (That’s one reason I didn’t do so well as the salesman for my family’s box factory.) I’m happy to write<\/i> the book, but flogging it is another matter; I’m not about to make this the Your Money<\/i> blog. Still, I thought it would be fun to set aside a Saturday afternoon to share some of the reviews the book has received.<\/p>\n Here are excerpts from a few of the reviews I’ve found elsewhere on the web (emphasis<\/b> mine):<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Your Money: The Missing Manual<\/i><\/a> has garnered thirteen reviews over at Amazon for an average of 4.5 stars.<\/b> Ten of these reviews give the book five stars, one review gives it four stars, and two give the book two stars. In the interest of balance, here are excerpts from the two negative reviews:<\/p>\n That first negative review is valid though puzzling (of course the advice is U.S.-centric \u2014 the book is for a U.S. market!), but the second one really hurt at first. Eventually I realized that there’s nothing I can do about it, so I’ve just come to accept it. Yes, the book points to tons of other resources (that was the plan from the start!), but I<\/i> know there’s no plagiarism here, and that I’ve done my damnedest to make the book stand stand apart from the blog instead of just borrowing material published here previously. But you can’t please everyone, right?<\/p>\n It’s edifying that the book is getting good reviews. I poured my heart and soul into this book for four months (five, if you count editing), and gained 20 pounds. (I’m finally<\/i> down to the weight I was at after walking the marathon at the beginning of October.) I did my best to write the book I wish I’d read five years ago, and I’m proud of what I produced.<\/p>\n Have you<\/i> read Your Money: The Missing Manual<\/i><\/b><\/a>? What did you think? What did I get right? What could be improved? Who would you recommend the book for? (And would the book make a good gift for graduates?)<\/p>\n Just a quick note from the book front. Many<\/i> of you have asked for a Kindle<\/a> edition of Your Money: The Missing Manual<\/i>. While that wasn’t originally part of the publisher’s plans, they’ve decided that there was enough demand to take that step.<\/p>\n To summarize, here are all of the different ways you can pick up a copy of Your Money: The Missing Manual<\/i>:<\/p>\n And, of course, your local library may have a copy. (The Portland library system has 20 copies \u2014 but they’re all checked out and there are 29 holds!)<\/p>\n So, if you’ve been waiting for the electronic version of my book, you need wait no longer. You can download Your Money: The Missing Manual<\/i> for the Amazon Kindle (or the Kindle app on the iPhone or iPad) for just ten bucks. I appreciate the support!<\/p>\n Meanwhile, I still haven’t decided whether to pursue a second book. My agent and I had a conference with another, larger publisher. They’d like to do an actual Get Rich Slowly<\/i> book, which I think is a great idea. However, their idea for what that book would look like is different than my<\/i> idea of what it would look like. (I’d like to do a book that featured more narrative \u2014 stories from me and from GRS readers. I think using stories to illustrate concepts would be fantastic.)<\/p>\n Plus there’s the problem that I’m not ready to devote all of my time to another book. I’ve been under a lot of stress the past couple of years, and it’s only now beginning to let up. I want to savor this sense of freedom for a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Things may seem calm and quiet on the surface of the blog, but behind the scenes here at Get Rich Slowly, everything’s a whirlwind. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but blogging doesn’t scale. That is, one man (or woman) can handle a small blog with a few hundred readers, but the bigger a site grows, the more demands there are on your time. Even though I’m using more and more help lately, I simply can’t keep up. So, the calm surface here belies the turbulence underneath.<\/p>\n Of course, part of the hubbub comes from the release of Your Money: The Missing Manual<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. The book is<\/em> now available at Amazon, and folks have had kind things to say<\/a> about it. (Thanks for all of your nice e-mails; they make me smile.) Other bookstores should be receiving their copies over the next month. It’s also now available from Borders and Barnes and Noble<\/a>, and will soon be available from Powell’s<\/a>.<\/p>\n Speaking of Powell’s, I’ll be giving a talk at Powell’s Technical Books at 7pm on Thursday, April 15th.<\/strong> (Which also happens to be the fourth anniversary of Get Rich Slowly.) I’d love if you came out and gave me some support. I’m a hesitant public speaker, and if there are some friendly folks in the crowd, that’ll give me more confidence!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3287,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/242881"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/242881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/ym-coupon.jpg\" "\\"Get")
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/span>Help Make This Book a Success!<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/defeatingdeath.jpg\" "\\"If")
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/span>From Blog to Book: Why I Wrote Your Money: The Missing Manual<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/span>Your Money: The Missing Manual, News and Reviews<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/a><\/div>\n<\/span>Your Money: The Missing Manual — Now Available for Kindle!<\/span><\/h2>\n
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