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

141–147 of 147 posts

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

#141

Post by GFischer »

clifanatic wrote: post #138
spdustin wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 .

> s/bookstore/amazon\.com/g Well, anybody can self-publish on Amazon (and I do mean anybody, including the completely illiterate), so I'm not sure that's a very high bar.

While many can, I'm pretty sure not many actually do :) (at least for technical topics).

It depends on whether the employer will care to check your book references or not, I guess.

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

#142

Post by antoaravinth »

paulbjensen wrote: post #80

I've just spent 18 months working on a title for Manning which is due for publication soon: https://www.manning.com/books/cross-platform-desktop-applica... - Writing a book is a huge undertaking - make sure that you have the time to do it. - Find a good environment to write the book in - if you have kids/pets/others that will interrupt you, try to find somewhere else to do the writing - Marcus Hammerberg (the co-auth…

Out of curiosity how much does Manning pays for the first time author?

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

#143

Post by przeor »

StevePerkins wrote: post #95

Look for any "right of first refusal" clauses in the contract. I was approached by Packt a few years ago, to write a book in a fairly niche topic ( http://amzn.to/29LR9Ly ). Their reputation is not the most stellar, but I put a lot of work into making a high-quality book with source code on GitHub and live examples running on Heroku. So I "beat the odds", I guess... earning several times the (small) advance, and gett…

hello Steve, could you tell more about "signed a clause giving Packt the right of first refusal on my next two books".

I am also with Packt and I don't see any clause like that in my contract :-) (I've finished 350 pages from 380 goal, my book is 90% finished).

I am interested in details, what and why you had to sign smth like that?

Regards, Kamil

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

#144

Post by drb311 »

StevePerkins wrote: post #95

Look for any "right of first refusal" clauses in the contract. I was approached by Packt a few years ago, to write a book in a fairly niche topic ( http://amzn.to/29LR9Ly ). Their reputation is not the most stellar, but I put a lot of work into making a high-quality book with source code on GitHub and live examples running on Heroku. So I "beat the odds", I guess... earning several times the (small) advance, and gett…

Steven I'm managing editor at Packt. Thank you for publishing your book with us.

If you want to publish your next work yourself or with another publisher just mail us and ask. I'm sure we wouldn't enforce that clause against your will.

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

#145

Post by lxt »

jeffwass wrote: post #103
lxt wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are going into a book contract, familiarize yourself with cross-accounting or basket accounting clauses, and get them stricken from the contract. (This is the clause where you need to earn out all the books before getting royalties for any of them.) In general familiarize yourself with book contracts, and understand the pitfalls. Or consult a literary lawyer. Source: I'm the author of multiple tech books over…

What's the general difference in contract terms between tech books and novels? Or are they fairly similar? Also curious about the differences in how you do the writing.

The basic shape of the contract is the same. The publishers I have worked for are both fans of plain language and relatively short contracts, which helps. (Tech publisher is Pearson, fwiw, and they have been wonderful to work with over the years.)

The differences in how I write are pretty epic. For a tech book I'll work out a very detailed outline (down to subheadings within each chapter) in advance, and need larger slabs of time to write to maintain my train of thought. For novels I tend to work from a much lighter-weight outline (major plot points, not chapter by chapter) but spend a bunch of time in advance thinking through the characters and world-building.

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

#147

Post by jeffwass »

lxt wrote: post #145
jeffwass wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the general difference in contract terms between tech books and novels? Or are they fairly similar? Also curious about the differences in how you do the writing.

The basic shape of the contract is the same. The publishers I have worked for are both fans of plain language and relatively short contracts, which helps. (Tech publisher is Pearson, fwiw, and they have been wonderful to work with over the years.) The differences in how I write are pretty epic. For a tech book I'll work out a very detailed outline (down to subheadings within each chapter) in advance, and need larger…

Cool, thanks a lot for that lxt.
Post reply on HN