{"id":14742,"date":"2021-10-16T11:02:34","date_gmt":"2021-10-16T03:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/?p=14742"},"modified":"2023-12-23T21:37:24","modified_gmt":"2023-12-23T13:37:24","slug":"fan2000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/","title":{"rendered":"2,000 copies of F.A.N sold!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>2023 update: crossed 3,000 in June of this year! <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2731 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today is October 16, 2021, and I just sold my 2000th copy of Friendly Ambitious Nerd! I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=56qCVfpjV0I\">made a video in March 2020<\/a> when I released it: rewatching it now, I came up with the idea Feb 2nd, made it available for preorder on 3rd or 4th, wrote and published the book in a month by repurposing twitter threads, blogposts. Topics that I can talk about indefinitely. The challenge for me isn&#8217;t to have material, but to frame the material in a way that is sensitive to the reader, that makes sense, that isn&#8217;t overwhelming, that&#8217;s a good introduction that brings you into the ideaspace. I wasn&#8217;t satisfied with the job that I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A year and a half later, I&#8217;m kind of embarrassed about the fact that I haven&#8217;t updated the book yet. I&#8217;ve been spending that time mostly working on my second ebook, <a href=\"http:\/\/gum.co\/introspect\">Introspect<\/a>. (2023 update: also 3,000+ copies sold!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m a reader before I&#8217;m a writer, and when I read my own book I&#8217;m not satisfied \u2013 it&#8217;s all over the place, too many details in some parts and not enough in others, the layout of the chapters isn&#8217;t as thoughtful as it could be,&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few weeks later I wrote a post on my marketing blog about the <a href=\"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/marketing\/friendlynerdbook\/\">marketing thinking behind FAN<\/a>, and I&#8217;m really glad I wrote this because a strange thing that&#8217;s happened in the year or so since is that I&#8217;ve forgotten a lot about what it was like to try to come up with the idea for the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following Venn diagram does a good job of capturing how I was thinking about it. I was very conscious of the fact that whatever I published and heralded as my &#8220;debut work&#8221; would be quite definitive \u2013 it would influence how people introduce me to others, it would influence how people interpret my other work, it would influence people&#8217;s expectations of what&#8217;s to come. And so I wanted to be careful not to pigeonhole myself into writing about a subject that I didn&#8217;t feel comfortable being defined by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/friendlynerdbook-positioning.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11693\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I vaguely remember surveying and reviewing my existing threads and blogposts to try and figure out: what&#8217;s really good, by my own standards? What resonates with people? What is the message or story that I want to get out into the world? A lot of it was about making friends, being kind on the internet. And it was quickly apparent that I&#8217;m a nerd in my heart of hearts, and I wanted to write a love letter to that, encourage that. Of the 3 variables, I think Ambition is the one that&#8217;s least central to my personal identity. Ambition is something I&#8217;ve struggled with. I define Ambition as distinct from prestige-seeking \u2013 it&#8217;s not about wanting accolades, trinkets, awards, sex, money, power \u2013 to me, it&#8217;s about wanting to gratify your taste and embody your aesthetics and ideals in the most powerfully resonant way possible. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2023 update: crossed 3,000 in June of this year! \u2731 Today is October 16, 2021, and I just sold my 2000th copy of Friendly Ambitious Nerd! I made a video in March 2020 when I released it: rewatching it now, I came up with the idea Feb 2nd, made it available for preorder on 3rd [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1171],"tags":[1307],"class_list":["post-14742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memoirs","tag-friendly-ambitious-nerd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>2,000 copies of F.A.N sold! - @visakanv&#039;s blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2,000 copies of F.A.N sold! - @visakanv&#039;s blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"2023 update: crossed 3,000 in June of this year! \u2731 Today is October 16, 2021, and I just sold my 2000th copy of Friendly Ambitious Nerd! I made a video in March 2020 when I released it: rewatching it now, I came up with the idea Feb 2nd, made it available for preorder on 3rd [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"@visakanv&#039;s blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-16T03:02:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-23T13:37:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/friendlynerdbook-positioning.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Visakan Veerasamy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@visakanv\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Visakan Veerasamy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Visakan Veerasamy\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3e6b165830fd1623c501696e0c9efc0f\"},\"headline\":\"2,000 copies of F.A.N sold!\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-16T03:02:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-23T13:37:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/\"},\"wordCount\":518,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/friendlynerdbook-positioning.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"friendly ambitious nerd\"],\"articleSection\":[\"memoirs\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/\",\"name\":\"2,000 copies of F.A.N sold! - @visakanv&#039;s blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/friendlynerdbook-positioning.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-16T03:02:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-23T13:37:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3e6b165830fd1623c501696e0c9efc0f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/friendlynerdbook-positioning.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/friendlynerdbook-positioning.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"2,000 copies of F.A.N sold!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"@visakanv&#039;s blog\",\"description\":\"Buy my first book FRIENDLY AMBITIOUS NERD today! gum.co\/FANbook\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3e6b165830fd1623c501696e0c9efc0f\",\"name\":\"Visakan Veerasamy\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eb0258044c14d754c4ec19351286486b5cb4b0dbed3927a8e318a3da693d7ea3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eb0258044c14d754c4ec19351286486b5cb4b0dbed3927a8e318a3da693d7ea3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eb0258044c14d754c4ec19351286486b5cb4b0dbed3927a8e318a3da693d7ea3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Visakan Veerasamy\"},\"description\":\"@visakanv\",\"sameAs\":[\"instagram.com\/visakanv\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/visakanv\",\"youtube.com\/visakanv\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/author\/visakanv\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"2,000 copies of F.A.N sold! - @visakanv&#039;s blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"2,000 copies of F.A.N sold! - @visakanv&#039;s blog","og_description":"2023 update: crossed 3,000 in June of this year! \u2731 Today is October 16, 2021, and I just sold my 2000th copy of Friendly Ambitious Nerd! I made a video in March 2020 when I released it: rewatching it now, I came up with the idea Feb 2nd, made it available for preorder on 3rd [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/","og_site_name":"@visakanv&#039;s blog","article_published_time":"2021-10-16T03:02:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-12-23T13:37:24+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/friendlynerdbook-positioning.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Visakan Veerasamy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@visakanv","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Visakan Veerasamy","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/"},"author":{"name":"Visakan Veerasamy","@id":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3e6b165830fd1623c501696e0c9efc0f"},"headline":"2,000 copies of F.A.N sold!","datePublished":"2021-10-16T03:02:34+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-23T13:37:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/"},"wordCount":518,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/friendlynerdbook-positioning.jpg","keywords":["friendly ambitious nerd"],"articleSection":["memoirs"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/","url":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/","name":"2,000 copies of F.A.N sold! - @visakanv&#039;s blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/friendlynerdbook-positioning.jpg","datePublished":"2021-10-16T03:02:34+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-23T13:37:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3e6b165830fd1623c501696e0c9efc0f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/friendlynerdbook-positioning.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/marketing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/friendlynerdbook-positioning.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/fan2000\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"2,000 copies of F.A.N sold!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/","name":"@visakanv&#039;s blog","description":"Buy my first book FRIENDLY AMBITIOUS NERD today! gum.co\/FANbook","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3e6b165830fd1623c501696e0c9efc0f","name":"Visakan Veerasamy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eb0258044c14d754c4ec19351286486b5cb4b0dbed3927a8e318a3da693d7ea3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eb0258044c14d754c4ec19351286486b5cb4b0dbed3927a8e318a3da693d7ea3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eb0258044c14d754c4ec19351286486b5cb4b0dbed3927a8e318a3da693d7ea3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Visakan Veerasamy"},"description":"@visakanv","sameAs":["instagram.com\/visakanv","https:\/\/x.com\/visakanv","youtube.com\/visakanv"],"url":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/author\/visakanv\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14742"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15453,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14742\/revisions\/15453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}