Kindle version of "World's Worst" book on sale for $1.99

I just learned that the Kindle edition of my book, The World's Worst: A Guide to the Most Disgusting, Hideous, Inept, and Dangerous People, Places, and Things on Earth is on sale at Amazon for $1.99.

Contents include: Least Adorable Pet | Most Disgusting Behavior on a Plane | Most Rotten Cheese | Creepiest Toy Maker | Most Disagreeable Food Additive | Saddest Fate for an Island Nation | Most Disgusting Fruit | Worst Diet | Most Disgusting Beverage | Most Lethal Clutter | Cruelest Food Preparation | Worst Grudge Against Nature | Least Genial Fish | And lots more!

• [shutz]

  You “just learned”?  Don’t you have any say in this?  Will you be making any money off these sales, at that price?

  • [Chris Bell]

    Also, Mark: did you deliberately use “version” because this differs substantially from the print edition apart from being digital, or is this just the Kindle edition of the print book?

• [Mark_Frauenfelder]

  My editor at Chronicle just found out and emailed me about it. I’m happy about it, because it wasn’t selling many copies in print. I’m not sure how much I’ll make in royalties, but I’ll get a small fee from Amazon when people by the book through Boing Boing.

  • [Romeo Vitelli]

     I got mine on Kobo.  Just saying…

    • [Bobsyeruncle]

      Hm. $7.09 CAD for Kobo or $1.99 USD for Kindle…  

• [EH]

  Would you say there are any age-restrictions on the content, i.e. safe for a 13yo?

  • [Mark_Frauenfelder]

    One item might not be right for a 13-year-old – “crush videos”

  • [Boundegar]

    I’d buy it for my 14yo without waiting for an answer.

• [Tony Sanfilippo]

  I hear these things sell a bazillion copies, but it’s often less than a buck that the author and publisher are splitting on each sale, so it’s half of a bazillion, or 9,000, whatever. Still, better than nothing. I bet it sells in at least the 20K range.

• [David Pescovitz]

  As objective as I can be as Mark’s best friend and business partner, I will say that this book is very fun and quintessentially Boing Boing. I got a kick out of every page.

• [penguinchris]

  I’ve known about this book for a while but haven’t read it. I’m familiar with this type of book though and my question to you is, how does one come to write these sorts of things? 

  Does the publisher come up with the idea and then look for someone they think might be able to do it, or do authors come up with these ideas and pitch them like they would a normal book?

  It always seemed like there was an industry producing these sorts of books that was quite detached from the “normal” publishing industry so I’m just curious if that’s really the case.

  What prompted me to think of this is that knowing your background it seemed kind of random that you’d write a book like this. Not that it doesn’t seem right – I’d choose you to write something like this – it just doesn’t seem like something that one day you’d decide you really want to do unless you were asked by somebody else.

  • [Mark_Frauenfelder]

    I came up with the idea myself. I don’t remember how. But I pitched it to Chronicle and they bought it!

    • [penguinchris]

      Cool. I always wanted to write something like this since a lot of them are so bad (not yours ;) and when they’re good they’re really enjoyable as light reading – guess I probably need a writing reputation first though.

• [Onigorom]

  I don’t know the book but I assume, like other books of this kind, it is entirely a-political; i.e. it does not contain historical samples of CIA activities, contemporary detention practices etc.

  • [David Pescovitz]

    Your assumption is incorrect.

    http://boingboing.net/2005/07/21/worlds-worst-excerpt.html