The archive · Business Models · Marketing decision · 2014–2015
Tracy Osborn pre-sells Hello Web App for $4.6K off a Kickstarter-grown email list
Tracy Osborn turned her Hello Web App Kickstarter into an ~800-name email list, then pre-sold the book in tiers on Gumroad and Amazon for a reported $4,612.38.
Tracy Osborn
What it had to solve
Tracy Osborn, a designer who taught herself Django in six weeks and ran the wedding-business startup WeddingLovely, was permanently annoyed at tutorials that explained things the wrong way. After four years of the same gap, she decided to write and self-publish her ideal beginner book, Hello Web App, for the deliberately small audience of people who had not learned to build web apps yet.
How it works
Tracy Osborn learned Django in six weeks as a designer and never stopped being annoyed at tutorials: whenever she finally understood a step, she wondered why it had been taught that way. Four years later the Django tutorial ecosystem had not improved, so she wrote the book she wished had existed — Hello Web App, for people who wanted to build web apps but had not learned how yet.
Her launch was deliberately built on attention. The Kickstarter succeeded, but its biggest contribution, she wrote, was an email list of around 800 interested readers by the time she was ready to launch. She then opened pre-orders on Gumroad in three tiers — a $14.95 ebook, a $29.95 ebook-and-paperback bundle and a $79 ebook-plus-videos package — while also listing Kindle and paperback editions on Amazon and a Leanpub version. For Reddit she asked a moderator first and posted a personal story rather than a product link; for Product Hunt she launched the page itself.
The numbers she later published: $4,612.38 in pre-orders plus launch day, with Gumroad at $3,618.74 and Amazon at $993.64; Leanpub made nothing because it does not allow pre-sales. Product Hunt contributed roughly 1,000 visits and 17 sales, mostly of the $79 package. She published the full breakdown — tiers, platform fees, margins — explicitly to help other would-be authors, and the post drew a 288-point Hacker News discussion with 105 comments.
Why it lands
- The Kickstarter was run for the list, not just the cash: roughly 800 emails from interested readers gave launch day a ready-made audience.
- Tiers matched buyer intent: a cheap ebook, a mid paperback bundle and a premium $79 video package — and the Product Hunt crowd mostly bought the top tier.
- She treated distribution as an experiment, selling on Gumroad, Amazon and Leanpub at once and comparing margins, with Gumroad returning about 10x Amazon's per-sale profit.
- Community outreach was handled as a favour to the community: moderator permission first, then a story-style self-post rather than a product link, which Reddit would have downvoted.
- Publishing the full numbers afterwards made the campaign itself the marketing — a template other self-publishers could follow.
What it did
She reported $4,612.38 in pre-order and launch-day revenue (Gumroad $3,618.74; Amazon $993.64; Leanpub $0 because it cannot pre-sell), with Product Hunt day bringing about 1,000 visits and 17 sales, mostly of the $79 package. Her breakdown post drew 288 points and 105 comments on Hacker News.
What you can take
For a self-published launch, harvest attention first: a crowdfunding campaign or pre-order page that collects emails turns launch day into a sale, and tiered offers let the most eager buyers pay more.
Since then
Sales settled to one or two books a day over the following two months — "definitely not paying the bills just yet" — but the launch opened other doors: a workshop at DjangoCon EU, a speaking and workshop slot at DjangoCon US, and an audience for possible follow-up books. She published the economics of the launch as a guide for other self-publishers and called the project "a nice chunk of change. Nothing mind-blowing. Worth it."
Sources
- I self-published a learn-to-code book and made nearly $5k in pre-orders (Hacker News discussion)
- Show HN: I wrote a book teaching web app development for non-programmers
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card