[MehdiEG]

This is what you say:

" This is not your run of the mill E-book – this is content that puts you in the mind of the VCs, allowing you to:

Dominate Pitches Understand their perspective Speech their language Get into incumbators " (all spelling mistakes left as-it)

In addition, you are very strongly encouraging people to pay for it and making them feel guilty if they don't.

This is what I got: a 2.5-page PDF document that contains a really basic check-list of what investors are looking for in a startup - the sort of thing you'll find on a countless number of blog posts about raising funding.

Is this a joke?

[Madintelligence]

No I'm trying to understand how small businesses work. I seriously have no idea - so I am starting at the beginning by covering their content while also trying to sell what I research.

The ebook was always free - now it is very clear that it is.

Also Thank you very much!

[MehdiEG]

So what you're saying is that you haven't got any experience and haven't got the faintest clue in what you're talking about (VC funding), but you're still giving advice to people and were trying to sell an "e-book" about it?

Of course, I know that some people are making a very good living by doing just this - writing about stuff they know nothing about. But this isn't going to earn you any favours here.

You said in another comment that you're an accountant. Are you a good accountant and do you like accounting? If yes, there's plenty to do on that front. Accounting is something that most people hate and see as being horribly complex. Yet, it's something that all entrepreneur have to do very early on in their business - they just don't have a choice. What about you write about this instead? I'm pretty sure you could end up with something a lot more useful than this "e-book".

Another tip: don't lie. Don't tell me that I'm going to get a book and then give me a 2.5-page check-list that has less content than an average blog post. Don't tell me that I'm going to "dominate pitches" or "speak their language" and give me a copied-and-pasted list that anybody interested in raising VC funding would have read a hundred times already.

A check-list is a check-list. A blog post is blog post. A book is a book. It's that simple. Pretending otherwise will only get you angry customers.

[Madintelligence]

MehdiEG - thanks for all the comments; its all part of the learning experience! I also checked out your business and downloaded your software. Good luck with that.

I will definitely take this all in account and stick to what I know. At the moment I'm just starting out so everything is new to me - but at least now I know that what I am writing is not a) at the quality or b) the quantity enough that people will want. I was going under the impression that you sell what the market can bear - and if you do that wrong, you change your strategy; but you keep trucking along.

Just lastly - I did not think I was lying; I didn't assume anything, and all I thought was that this was going to get lost with the rest of HN posts.