> Sounds like having a big audience and pre-existing list really helps!

I didn't have a particularly big audience. I had about 2k mailing list subscribers on my main blog, but a pretty small percentage of them purchased. And I had something like 600 subscribers for the book because I've been saying I'd write it since 2021, but all I had was a mailing list.

> How did you go about building that audience and list, and what helped the most to doing that?

I haven't been focused on growing the list that much.

My main goal right now is to get feedback from readers and use it to improve the book. Once the book is done and I can't think of ways to improve it, I'll probably switch to focusing more on finding more places to find paying readers.

> Which lists / audience converted the most for your book offer

I find the most paying readers from HN, actually. I don't think it's the most in terms of conversion percentage, but it's the most in absolute terms because HN is so big. And then there are secondary effects of something doing well on HN because people share the link on other, smaller sites and social media.

> how did you promote or otherwise let folks know about your book?

The thing that's always worked best for me is writing blog posts that I hope my target audience will find interesting. So the thing that's worked for the book is adapting parts of the book to standalone blog posts and sharing those online.[0] A few of those posts did well on HN because I tried to make them interesting to developers interested in writing/blogging.[1]

> What was the compelling ask to pre-order a book?

Haha, maybe I should craft that more. It's mainly that they get to read more of whatever samples they've already hopefully found useful.

My pitch for early access is that early readers get to read it and ask me questions and help shape the book.

> And, how do you plan to publish the book?

I'm already publishing it as a PDF/epub that I sell through Stripe.

I might eventually do a print run or sell Amazon, but I hate dealing with Amazon and physical products, so I'd have to be really confident it would have a big impact on sales.

[0] https://refactoringenglish.com/chapters/

[1] https://refactoringenglish.com/tools/hn-popularity/domain/?d...