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

How I make $400 a month in Passive Income by Self-Publishing

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 65 posts

Re: How I make $400 a month in Passive Income by Self-Publishing

#41

Post by coldtea »

boyter wrote: post #4

Its quite amazing how much money you can make with self-published books. For example I wrote a book about Decoding CAPTCHA's. I have the top ranking post on most search engines for this which is the only marketing channel. I collect about $35 a month from it without spending any additional time marketing. Not very much but such a small niche it really surprised me. Oddly enough the main reason for writing the book wa…

>Its quite amazing how much money you can make with self-published books. (...) I collect about $35 a month from it

In what way does the first claim follow from the example?

It might be possible to make a lot of money from self-publishing books, but $35/month, whether with or without additional marketing, is hardly a proof for that.

If anything, it's a proof of loss, as the book took you time to write. If you value those hours at the minimal wage rate, it would take ages to recoup those costs...

Re: How I make $400 a month in Passive Income by Self-Publishing

#42

Post by coldtea »

chii wrote: post #10
matt4077 wrote: post #6

I couldn't find any numbers, but I get the distinct impression that so far, the authors job at google probably pays better than the book. Sure, most of the work is done now and if continues for another two years or so things change. But it's hard to predict how non-fiction books age.

It doesn't matter how much a book ages, as long as it was written in the off time (I.e., evenings or weekends). The sales made from that book is a net productivity gain.

Opportunity cost doesn't stop working on evenings or weekends.

Re: How I make $400 a month in Passive Income by Self-Publishing

#43

Post by shostack »

boyter wrote: post #4

Its quite amazing how much money you can make with self-published books. For example I wrote a book about Decoding CAPTCHA's. I have the top ranking post on most search engines for this which is the only marketing channel. I collect about $35 a month from it without spending any additional time marketing. Not very much but such a small niche it really surprised me. Oddly enough the main reason for writing the book wa…

If you'd like to continue earning from this and SEO is your only marketing, I would kindly suggest you diversify. That is having all your eggs in one basket that you have very little direct control over.

Re: How I make $400 a month in Passive Income by Self-Publishing

#44

Post by jacquesm »

patrickyeon wrote: post #24

A little off-topic, but I found this interesting: > "Specifically, a lot of the traditional guys price e-books at $20–30, often times more than the paperback/hardcover, which is so stupid." It catches my eye when people get stuck on an e-book version costing more than a hard copy. It's funny that a Kindle version can be more valuable (instant delivery, easier to carry around, and a more enjoyable reading experience)…

> Personally, I'll gladly pay an extra dollar to get an e-book version for anything I'm only expecting to read once or twice.

Sure, but you won't be able to pass that book on to someone else and that is a major feature that paper books have that e-books should have (and maybe even better than paper ones) that they don't due to DRM.

Re: How I make $400 a month in Passive Income by Self-Publishing

#45

Post by chimprich »

boyter wrote: post #4

Its quite amazing how much money you can make with self-published books. For example I wrote a book about Decoding CAPTCHA's. I have the top ranking post on most search engines for this which is the only marketing channel. I collect about $35 a month from it without spending any additional time marketing. Not very much but such a small niche it really surprised me. Oddly enough the main reason for writing the book wa…

> CAPTCHA's

You don't need the apostrophe to indicate a plural, even with acronyms (or backronyms). "CAPTCHAs" is fine. I wouldn't normally comment but it is the title of your book.

Re: How I make $400 a month in Passive Income by Self-Publishing

#46

Post by boyter »

coldtea wrote: post #41
boyter wrote: post #4

Its quite amazing how much money you can make with self-published books. For example I wrote a book about Decoding CAPTCHA's. I have the top ranking post on most search engines for this which is the only marketing channel. I collect about $35 a month from it without spending any additional time marketing. Not very much but such a small niche it really surprised me. Oddly enough the main reason for writing the book wa…

> Its quite amazing how much money you can make with self-published books. (...) I collect about $35 a month from it In what way does the first claim follow from the example? It might be possible to make a lot of money from self-publishing books, but $35/month, whether with or without additional marketing, is hardly a proof for that. If anything, it's a proof of loss, as the book took you time to write. If you value…

I think you are missing my point which is that even very small niches can produce income even without marketing efforts. Small niche. Zero marketing effort. $35 seems pretty good to me for the effort spent.

Re: How I make $400 a month in Passive Income by Self-Publishing

#47

Post by boyter »

shostack wrote: post #43
boyter wrote: post #4

Its quite amazing how much money you can make with self-published books. For example I wrote a book about Decoding CAPTCHA's. I have the top ranking post on most search engines for this which is the only marketing channel. I collect about $35 a month from it without spending any additional time marketing. Not very much but such a small niche it really surprised me. Oddly enough the main reason for writing the book wa…

If you'd like to continue earning from this and SEO is your only marketing, I would kindly suggest you diversify. That is having all your eggs in one basket that you have very little direct control over.

It's not really anything I'm worried about. Its not really worth putting any effort into as the whole thing is just set and forget. I would also imagine it would be very hard to topple the see value of the page that's driving sales, which for the amount of money we are talking about isn't worth it.

Re: How I make $400 a month in Passive Income by Self-Publishing

#48

Post by boyter »

chimprich wrote: post #45
boyter wrote: post #4

Its quite amazing how much money you can make with self-published books. For example I wrote a book about Decoding CAPTCHA's. I have the top ranking post on most search engines for this which is the only marketing channel. I collect about $35 a month from it without spending any additional time marketing. Not very much but such a small niche it really surprised me. Oddly enough the main reason for writing the book wa…

> CAPTCHA's You don't need the apostrophe to indicate a plural, even with acronyms (or backronyms). "CAPTCHAs" is fine. I wouldn't normally comment but it is the title of your book.

Being your own editor is hard. Cheers. I'll push an update with corrections.

Re: How I make $400 a month in Passive Income by Self-Publishing

#49

Post by rayalez »

umurkontaci wrote: post #25
patrickyeon wrote: post #24

A little off-topic, but I found this interesting: > "Specifically, a lot of the traditional guys price e-books at $20–30, often times more than the paperback/hardcover, which is so stupid." It catches my eye when people get stuck on an e-book version costing more than a hard copy. It's funny that a Kindle version can be more valuable (instant delivery, easier to carry around, and a more enjoyable reading experience)…

Sure, it's about supply and demand, but the cost of distributing and ebook compared to a hard copy is close to zero. Plenty of products are artificially priced, but when this is very obvious, it feels like a rip-off.

Things cost as much as people are willing to pay for them.

If I'm willimg to pay $5/$20/$50 for an ebook, it should be irrelevant how much it costs to distribute it.

It has information in it and if I want this information I will give author the money.

He may have determined his price by considering the distribution costs, or how much he wants to make per hour, or based on how much he thinks people will buy it for, or he may have simply pulled it out of his butt.

If I'm handing him $50, and am not disappointed after reading the book, it is not a rip-off.

Re: How I make $400 a month in Passive Income by Self-Publishing

#50

Post by galfarragem »

dilemma wrote: post #39

1. Active, not passive: This is income made by actively promoting the book upon its release as stated in the post. 2. Past, not future: This is historical revenue based on active marketing. It is unlikely that it will bring the same income in the future without marketing. 3. Revenue, not profit: The nice cover design is something others would need to pay for if this is to serve as reference, but this cost isn't taken…

Passive income is just an alias for a delayed active income with uncertain ROI.
Post reply on HN