Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 147 posts

Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?

#121

Post by AnimalMuppet »

amouat wrote: post #81

I wrote "Using Docker" for O'Reilly recently. My thoughts: - I wouldn't bother with the advance. It was a pitiful amount of money and was paid in instalments that I constantly had to chase. Instead see if you can negotiate a better royalty rate (as your first book, I don't know if this will happen). Supposedly I was lucky to get advance at all, not sure how true that is. - Another commentor mentioned the free books t…

> I wouldn't bother with the advance. It was a pitiful amount of money and was paid in instalments that I constantly had to chase.

Unless you need the prodding to help you actually get the book done...

Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?

#122

Post by redtexture »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #93

I am late to this discussion but I have one important thing to add: make sure in your contract that the rights to the book revert to you if the publisher does not publish the book in a timely manor. This happened to me just one time, and I learned my lesson: I signed a contract with good terms, and half way through writing the book discovered the publisher was also producing a competing book. They decided to not publ…

And make sure you have clearly and favorably defined in your terms, in the contract, what "publish", and "in print" mean, so there's no wiggling out of the obligation by the publisher to return the book rights to you. That, and only license the right to the publisher. You hold the ownership of the copyright.

Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?

#123

Post by _jdams »

joelhooks wrote: post #22

I've published two books through publishers and the actual writing experience was very similar to the book that I self-published. For the self-published book I followed he basic path set forth in Nathan Barry's Authority[0]. Financially speaking it was definitely more lucrative to self-publish, but I've got access to a large audience to sell to. There is another approach that I've seen that I find interesting and tha…

Thanks for sharing your experience. Never heard of Authority, I'm going to check it out!

Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?

#124

Post by hguant »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #31
patio11 wrote: post #14

What is a fair, market-rate deal for a first-time technical author writing about a popular subject? You're going to be shocked and dismayed by the offer they give you. Let's get that out of the way now. This is the model: they'll tell you to not do it for the money, in exactly those words, prior to explaining to you terms which imply that they're not doing it for ~92.5% of the money. You will likely be offered someth…

I asked someone who does this. Somewhat transcribed comments: Expect $0 to $3k from a really shitty publisher who is probably just going to waste your time, or a serious publisher who believes you'll waste the publisher's time, or both. $3k to $6k from a publisher who has some clue, but the topic is extremely niche. ("Pentesting South African Wifi Networks with Monads") $6k to $12k from a publisher with some clue for…

For the record, niche authors, I would love to read "Pentesting South African WifFi Networks with Monads"

Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?

#125

Post by clifanatic »

calcsam wrote: post #12

Most technical authors don't write a book for the money -- they write a book for the prestige (and proportionally higher consulting rates).

Can confirm: I didn't publish for the money, I published for the prestige. Still waiting for all the prestige to roll in...

Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?

#126

Post by clifanatic »

spdustin wrote: post #21
calcsam wrote: post #12

Most technical authors don't write a book for the money -- they write a book for the prestige (and proportionally higher consulting rates).

This is likely to be the more useful answer here. The biggest benefit comes from listing "author of [book you can buy at bookstore]" on your CV or web site. The marketing power of your name being seen by potential employers (or their employees who point to you as the domain expert of a topic). Not from actual royalties past the royalty advance which, as others have mentioned, would be rare. Of course, the value of th…

> The biggest benefit comes from listing "author of [book you can buy at bookstore]" on your CV

What about "[book you could buy at bookstore at one point, but not any more]"?

Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?

#128

Post by spdustin »

clifanatic wrote: post #126
spdustin wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is likely to be the more useful answer here. The biggest benefit comes from listing "author of [book you can buy at bookstore]" on your CV or web site. The marketing power of your name being seen by potential employers (or their employees who point to you as the domain expert of a topic). Not from actual royalties past the royalty advance which, as others have mentioned, would be rare. Of course, the value of th…

> The biggest benefit comes from listing "author of [book you can buy at bookstore]" on your CV What about "[book you could buy at bookstore at one point, but not any more]"?

I guess that would depend on if the book is still relevant to and likely to be owned by the person you're pitching.

Or, of course, you're making a glib commentary about retail bookstores, in which case, s/bookstore/amazon\.com/g.

Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?

#129

Post by oneloop »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #31
patio11 wrote: post #14

What is a fair, market-rate deal for a first-time technical author writing about a popular subject? You're going to be shocked and dismayed by the offer they give you. Let's get that out of the way now. This is the model: they'll tell you to not do it for the money, in exactly those words, prior to explaining to you terms which imply that they're not doing it for ~92.5% of the money. You will likely be offered someth…

I asked someone who does this. Somewhat transcribed comments: Expect $0 to $3k from a really shitty publisher who is probably just going to waste your time, or a serious publisher who believes you'll waste the publisher's time, or both. $3k to $6k from a publisher who has some clue, but the topic is extremely niche. ("Pentesting South African Wifi Networks with Monads") $6k to $12k from a publisher with some clue for…

> because publishers do not promote books. There's a sell-in period aimed at store buyers before publication to get the book on physical shelves, but otherwise publishers do somewhere between exactly zero and almost zero marketing and promotion.

I'd be interested in hearing more about this. Why is it that publishers don't promote books?

Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?

#130

Post by [deleted] »

prawn wrote: post #39
patio11 wrote: post #14

What is a fair, market-rate deal for a first-time technical author writing about a popular subject? You're going to be shocked and dismayed by the offer they give you. Let's get that out of the way now. This is the model: they'll tell you to not do it for the money, in exactly those words, prior to explaining to you terms which imply that they're not doing it for ~92.5% of the money. You will likely be offered someth…

Had an experience that gels with this. Advance of $1k per chapter (I wrote 3 chapters of an 8-10 chapter book) then without the publisher pushing it aggressively, royalties beyond that were minimal. The content did not date too badly so much as the presentation of it did. Deadlines were brutal, especially incorporating edits and requests to expand/etc. That was a brain-melting experience. Sourcing and providing scree…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN