Book About Food Management

[Michael]

I've been throwing around the idea of writing a book about food/weight management and training motivation. I've amassed a ton of information and practice over the last 5 years (including working with other people's parrots and consulting owners) and could easily fill a short book about the subject. Since I see this topic come up here a lot and it is one of the most misunderstood aspects of parrot ownership, I feel that a book on the subject may be justified.

I have detected at least 5 good reasons why food/weight management is a must for most parrot owners. I've also noticed that people are afraid of trying it, so I hope to lay out a technique that would put their minds at rest and be able to implement it. Keep in mind that my reasons for food management are not just for training. I think it benefits any parrot kept at home for health and hormonal reasons beyond just training.

I don't give much free public advice on the subject because it is complicated and extensive. I feel that things can be easily taken out of context and done the wrong way so I offer private consultations to work it out on a case by case basis. In the span of an entire book, though, I feel I could lay out enough info for people to coach themselves and gauge if they are doing things right.

So I'd simply like to test the waters and see how much interest there would be in such a book? It would be fairly dense and very extensive. I'd probably crack some hard numbers on my own birds to provide as examples. This would probably be available as ebook only as this is such a niche topic to justify actual printing (although if I got sufficient interest I totally would).

So what I'd like to know is whether or not you'd buy this and if you'd be willing to prepay a refundable price (I'm ball parking $30 but would have to do some further contemplation to finalize the number) to encourage me to put this together and get it to you within 6 months of payment.

[marie83]

I'm not really sure one option covers what I want to say hence why I haven't voted.

Whilst I appreciate alot of your time and effort goes in to the writing of a book I feel I wouldn't buy an e-book for anywhere near that price, I would also be reluctant to buy a physical copy. That said I do feel there would be alot of interest in such a book but you would be putting off a lot of potential customers with the price.
I do feel more people, including your profitability would benefit with a lower price as you would sell more copies. That said I am not business minded so feel free to disregard that, you've been doing this kind of thing for a long time now and know the market best.

So am I interested? yes, even though I already apply food management strategies.
Would I buy the book? no, I would be struggling to justify spending that much when I don't know how much I will learn from it. I might consider it for half that price and a short preview on the chapters.

[janetafloat]

I'm interested in food management and it makes complete sense to me - after all, I don't free feed my dog and feed her high quality food but only enough to keep her trim, plus a few little healthy treats. However, I doubt I'd buy your book for $30....not that I'm saying your expertise isn't worth it...it's just more than I would pay. I hope you do go ahead with it, Michael, and look forward to reading it!

[GlassOnion]

I would surely read the book, but not for $30... The most I would pay is $15 ish. Sorry Michael! It's mostly because I already have a good idea of practising it.

[rebeccaturpeinen]

I would never prepay for a book I cant be sure of is coming... that wouldn't make any sense to me. And like the others; 30 $ is just too much.

[cml]

I can see many benefits of food management, and I use it somewhat, if not as thouroughly as you.

I wouldnt buy a book on that subject alone though, but the book idea is great, you have so much knowledge and guides in your blog that I think you have enough material for a book on parrot ownership in general. In such a book food management could be a chapter.

On the pricing topic, e-books are a way for unpublished authors to selfpublish themselvs, which I think is great. I guess many around here, like myself, must use the kindle, or the apps for phones, tablets etc?

The pricing strategy for e-books is very different from that of regular books, which are first published as hard covers and later paper backs.
An ebook is often only a few dollars, especially if its a self-published author, whereas a hardcover book is substantially more expensive, up to your 30$, or a little under.
If you set an ebook at the same price as a hardcover book, many people will be put off. They are used to consuming books at a cheap price. The strategy of self-published authors and the low price is simple, a low price will mean more copies sold. As there is no publisher who takes a large chunk out of profits, they make money directly, from each sold copy, and rely on the numbers of books sold for their revenue. Its not uncommon to give away the book for a time to help create a word of mouth kind of advertising.
I think the price of 30$ will generate you less revenue than a much lower price, and from a marketing point of view a 30$ pricetag will shoot the product down I think, if its published as an ebook.

Prepaying btw isnt unheard of as per say, http://www.kickstarter.com/ is a website that is just that, it collects money for project development, and promises as a reward for an investment that the users get the finished product. But I dont think Ive seen it done for a book though .

I think you are very talented and that a book by you would be an AWESOME resource for new parrot owners, but I think that book should cover general parrot care and training, and include food management, rather than be just about that! I hope you write such a book, because I think the parrot book market is rather limited from what Ive seen, with a lot of books just generalising between species.

Hope this helps!

[friend2parrots]

I didnt vote any of the choices, because they didnt fit what i think:

1. i would definitely be interested in purchasing a book you wrote on Parrot Care and Training in general, that included food management as a chapter (i agree with cml's post above) Because it would be fantastic to see all your training insights discussed in the blogs and forum entries further elaborated upon, and all together in one place. Youve got a lot of material already there for a very large and lengthy book!

I love books about parrots, and have a weakness for them. when it comes to books about parrots,
the longer, the heavier, and the chunkier in pages, the better!!

2. yes, i would be willing to spend $30 for a book, if its a book as I've just described, which will discuss more than food management alone.

if its $30 or more, I would expect it to be a hardbound or paperback book, as ebooks are usually cheaper, as the posters have mentioned above. i have occasionally seen long-page length ebooks occasionally going for that much, but only if its a reference title of interest to an academic audience. popular ebooks generally do go for less.

3. i personally would prefer a paper book (hardbound or paperback) because I'm not that fond of the ebook medium, but i understand that these days with the rising popularity of the electronic medium it might be necessary for authors to go the ebook route to get published.

[Michael]

Folks, I already have a general book in the works which will be out in a month or two. I'm talking specifically about a book solely on food management. It would be a very specific subject. Motivation and food management. In the section about food management in my general book it says "an entire book can be filled about food management but briefly here's how it works..." I really could fill an entire book about food management and motivation. It would include hard data recorded on my birds, worksheets, and things like that. It would be a very complete endeavor. It would be expensive because even if I gave it away for free there'd only be a small number of people who'd be interested in reading it. The general book will be available on paper at a reasonable price. The food management thing is a much more specialized deal. I'd have to spend an enormous amount of time preparing it for a very small number of copies sold no matter how cheap it is. Even at $30 it would be a heck of a lot cheaper than private consultations but just as complete. I admit $30 for a book is too much, however, in the parrot world everything is overpriced because of the specialization. A toy for a toddler is $3 but for a parrot is $15. A book about yoga is $5, a book about parrots is $30.

If there isn't enough genuine interest in the subject, I obviously will avoid taking so much time to prepare it. I already spend a ton of time blogging for free as is so finding the time to come out with a specialized book wouldn't be worth my time otherwise. It's just I see a ton of questions and discussions of food management and thought there might be more interest on the subject. I've been food managing my parrots for 5 years and have experimented with it all across the spectrum and understand well how it works.

[janetafloat]

No doubt you know your stuff Michael, but I'm sure you're right that food management to the level that you're talking about is only going to appeal to a small percentage of parrot owners. Good news that a general book is in the pipeline and all your free blogging is much appreciated!

[rebcart]

Hi Michael,

I don't think it's necessarily too expensive... But you really need to figure out exactly what your target market for this book would be. Unless you deeply understand who it is you want to be buying, you won't be able write and advertise the book correctly, meaning less copies sold and potentially disappointed customers.

For example, is it the typical bird owner? One or two birds, don't really do any training, probably keep their birds on an all seed diet? Don't bother, they have bigger problems and probably don't see the value in a food management book even at $5.

Apart from that, who is the desired target? Someone who already goes to this forum, or not? (don't say both, because people here are already sold on your work whereas people elsewhere need different convincing arguments and book structure) Is it the beginner home trainer, intermediate trainer, advanced trainer, rescue operator, or maybe even the apprentice zookeeper? Once that person is in your mind, you'll know whether they'll treat it as an online course-ish thing or if they won't buy unless it's a hard copy they can reference. Also, keep in mind that it's infinitely easier to use a hard copy as a reference guide in terms of flipping back and forth and looking at two tables at a time, making notes in the margins, etc. so that's yet another consideration for your writing layout.

Don't get in the trap of thinking it's not worth putting knowledge to paper unless you can sell it - even if you don't compile it into a book, it will have great benefits just for you and also for your free blog writing. But if you are keen on making money off this, you need to resign yourself to doing a lot more research and marketing than this single forum post, including in person - probably the same amount of time as you actually spend writing it, and mostly up front. (hint - this includes whether explaining your pricing to your audience, as you've done here, via 'I'm only in it for the money' is a turn-off or not )

For me, personally, I would be willing to pay $50-60 for that book if it's truly as good as you say it is, but I would need to be able to prove to myself that I will be able to use it, and only in hard copy. I have a few animal training ebooks, and even remembering that I have them, let alone where the hell I've saved them on my computer, is too high a barrier compared to those on my shelf. Maybe $10 at most for the electronic version.

Hmm, it turned into a bit of an essay, didn't it? Hope it helps.