Jawwad Farid Profile picture
Jul 25, 2020 11 tweets 6 min read Read on X
1/ Self publishing vs other options.

Let's get one thing out of the way.

You should publish once with a mainstream publisher. Get it out of the system. You should sell a title on Amazon. Make it to your genre, subject top 10 list. Even hit the numero uno spot for a day.
2/ But once you are done, you are done.

It doesn't matter who your publisher, distributor or book seller is. In the end you, the author, sells the book.

You create the hype, you generate the traffic, you direct the buyers.

Amazon doesn't get people to your book, you do
3/ So if you are writing the book, editing it, marketing it, promoting it, how much of the book proceeds do you get?

Do you get to talk or see or engage with your customers? Do you even know who they are?

With main stream publishing, no. There is no data, real time or otherwise
4/ It gets worse.

God forbid you are an unknown #desi #author living far away from the power centers of NYC, London and SFO

The math is not geared in your favor. You start off the race with a ship anchor tied to your legs and a blindfold over your eyes.
5/ So how do you know what part of your campaign is working? What do you need to tweak or change or pull or push? You don't.

And because you don't, you can't do anything to fix what is broken?
6/ What is your best bet?

If you have the ability to process payments, you have a platform to direct traffic from and you are willing to work hard, look at doing it yourself.

The downside? You are not going to be on the NYT or Amazon best seller list. No bragging rights.
7/ If you do it right and you have a great product and plan it well, you can do a 1,000 copies.

You have full control over your campaign. You can tweak it in real time and you only drop 5% to 10% of the book's price in payment processing and order fulfillment.
8/ A word of warning.

It's back breaking, soul wrenching, exhausting work. Filled with ridges of self doubt.

To break even on this train of hurt all you need is a single decent reader review.

A random note of appreciation from a stranger.

A book filled with preorders.
9/ Remember what I said earlier.

Once, just once, do a book with a mainstream publisher. It will teach you a great deal about the process of getting the book to a market. It is frustrating but great education.

But once you are done, consider the alternate path
10/ Lessons from a #book #launch - Part II

A thread for those who asked why #FounderPuzzles is not on Amazon. Been there, done that. Thrice.

Twice on the topic top ten best seller list. Once on numero uno.

@FaizaYousuf
@babushka99
@RahmaMian

#authors #Writer #WritersCafe
11/ If you are interested in main stream publishing, you will find this of interest.

#WritersCafe #writers #writerscommunity #writersoftwitter

financetrainingcourse.com/education/2013…

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More from @rebootdude

Jan 31
Had two insightful chats with two fellow academics and educationists yesterday.

The topic? What is it that we need to change to improve state of higher education in universities we teach in.

Here is a quick summary / the cliff notes edition of the conversation.
The purpose of undergraduate education?

Help our students discover, explore, develop and acquire interests.

A more ambitious goal? To get comfortable with personal performance windows and envelopes.

What are you really capable of? What is it that you want to do? Who are you?
The "who are you" question has been a key question in my life.

Self awareness is a powerful personal attribute that simplifies decision making and goal setting.

Because once you have answered this, you can also answer where do you want to go and what do you want to do?
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Sep 19, 2023
SWIFT MT 103. Foreign Currency Wire Transfers.

A single customer credit transfer made on the SWIFT network.

The bane of remittance/ free lancer / tech founder challenge across banking sector in Pakistan. More so for small businesses / founders that receive sub $ 1,000 wires.
Once upon a time in a different life we wrote, ran and supported treasury systems that generated MT 103 messages for local banks.

Given how treasuries front / back offices are structured and how all $ payments are consolidated and cleared via NYC, workflow was simple.
Collect all outgoing payments, bundle them together into one balance for one market / relationship / target account.

Send a shorter message to primary US$ Nostro account targeted for out going transfers for one amount.

If there is a shortfall, move money around.
Read 21 tweets
Feb 28, 2023
If you work with risk, insurance, trading or pricing, loss distributions are a key concept.

Traditional or introductory statistics courses don't have time to do justice to them.

We took a deep dive with automobile claims data (80,000 rows) in the ADA course.
With insurance models we are interested in two key parameters.

a) Frequency - the likelihood or probability of a claim.
b) Severity - the size of a claim, when a claim occurs.

Loss distributions focus on b).

If a claim occurs how big or bad is it likely to be?
Actuarial teams use data analysis to identify common attributes across high severity claims.

A large majority of motor insurance claims are within pricing limits.

A small percentage are 25 - 50x larger.

If we could identify the profile, we could price/underwrite better risks.
Read 10 tweets
Nov 12, 2022
How do you encourage or foster creativity?

Cross pollination and collaboration of ideas from different worlds and backgrounds?

We learn more when we

a) Work with individuals and teams with different perspectives.

b) Remove crutches that we use without thinking about them.
How would you design a high fidelity prototype for a game without using technology or standard art?

You level the playing field in one stroke. No developer, artist or designer would have an edge.

Only creativity would rule.

Welcome to @ibakarachi @Mindstormstudio @RaptrGames
Open to all undergraduate and graduate programs in Karachi.

If you are:

a) Avid game player
b) Aspiring game designer
c) Care about creative expression
d) Curios about what make games playable, addictive, instant hits, or
e) Love real time community feedback
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Nov 11, 2022
Fun talk today by Dr. Alnoor Bhimani @ibakarachi on data as a product, monetizing data, qualitative insights, and decision making processes.

And what all of the above implies for business school education.
My favorite takeaway?

If the data is the new oil for the knowledge economy, and we produce a lot of it, how do we productize and monetize it as an economy.

If we don't, someone else will. No one had put it down or explained it this clearly.

Data is our new edge.
Dr. Bhimani also made me a convert to the NFT cause.

I don't think he realized what he did but he said something so profound and powerful that it finally connected the dots for me.

"We may not be willing to pay for art produced by an AI today, but one day we will."
Read 4 tweets
Nov 9, 2022
The most fun engagements in my senile years are ones where I pick a new skill, crack a difficult problem or learn stuff I didn't know before.

Easier to do this type of work when you run a small specialized shop without distractions of a large team.

Small shop. Large footprint.
2018-19.
IFRS 17.
Teaching Portfolio Optimization Models + Algorithms + Financial Modeling.

2019-20.
First and second half marathon.
Remote work + Zoom Cohort based live training.
Founder Puzzles. Product launch.

2020-21.
Surviving Covid + recovering.
Close call.
3rd half.
2021-22.
Context switching. Fixing my knee.
Growth and Economic Complexity.
Raising 6 at 18 post.
Scale multiples and idea selection framework.
The Pakistan dataset.
Ed-Tech and crypto deep dive.
Teaching Venture Capital + Fintech and Financial Innovation.
Shipping FP, 2nd Ed.
Read 4 tweets

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