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Writing a software book and making over $100k

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Re: Writing a software book and making over $100k

#31

Post by chrisseaton »

scarface74 wrote: post #24
xchaotic wrote: post #19

I consider this a success story similar to an NBA star making it. So if 100k is very successful in terms of computer book revenues, then I’d say money should not be the main motivation to do it, as there’s better, more reliable ways to earn money in the software industry - working for any SP500 company will easily get you the same amount of money in less than a year, more or less guaranteed. I know it’s not either or…

I’ll go a step further. I agree going through all of the trouble writing and promoting a book for only a $100K seems like a lot of work. Especially when you consider the risk adjusted return. Anyone that smart could make more than that - guaranteed just by consulting. I’m most familiar with the Apple related ecosystem, but there you see people with a following making a money via optional subscriptions (Accidental Tec…

> Anyone that smart could make more than that - guaranteed just by consulting.

I'd have absolutely no idea where to even start consulting, or whether I'd have any aptitude for it. I'd be very surprised if anyone anywhere wanted to pay me $100k for consulting!

But I could probably write a book.

People have strengths in different areas.

Re: Writing a software book and making over $100k

#32

Post by jjk166 »

YetAnotherMatt wrote: post #10
paul_f wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If everything in the book was also in your blog posts, didn't that dampen sales of the book? This is my fear, if I give it away, no one will buy it.

I would assume that his blog posts are what convinced quite a few people to actually buy the book. That said, I'm not too familiar with the book sales industry. I am familiar with consulting. Initially I thought that giving all special knowledge away for free would be the worst thing I could possibly do. Boy was I wrong. Nowadays I give presentations detailing step by step exactly what people need to do in order to a…

If you are good at something and the customer doesn't really understand the process then you can make it look easy, and no one wants to spend a lot of money to pay someone to do something easy. But if the customer knows what it actually takes to solve the problem, the real value of having someone else do it is much more evident. Even if you feel like what you do is easy, there are people out there who consider it indistinguishable from magic. The uninformed are impressed by the magic, the informed are impressed by the magician.

Re: Writing a software book and making over $100k

#33

Post by jonstewart »

asicsp wrote: post #30
xchaotic wrote: post #19

I consider this a success story similar to an NBA star making it. So if 100k is very successful in terms of computer book revenues, then I’d say money should not be the main motivation to do it, as there’s better, more reliable ways to earn money in the software industry - working for any SP500 company will easily get you the same amount of money in less than a year, more or less guaranteed. I know it’s not either or…

> money should not be main motivator for writing a book. I know my case is an extreme corner case, but I did finally try my hand at writing a book to make money. Long story short, I left my job, was living on my savings, tried a few things, etc. The only active earning came via 1/2 workshops I conducted at my college. I started maintaing materials for those workshops and expanded it on my own interest and tried to ge…

Do you mind me asking how ~$250 is enough to cover your expenses for 2 months? That amount is so low for anyone in the US that the anecdote reads more as proof that it’s not worth it to write a book for the income. :-)

Re: Writing a software book and making over $100k

#35

Post by kemiller2002 »

hohenheim wrote: post #20
vladmihalcea wrote: post #2

I'm the book author, so if you have any questions, let me know.

You mentioned publishers leave you with 10% of the sales. I can't wrap my head around that, how is that possible and acceptable by authors?

There are a lot of things publishers do behind the scenes that no one thinks about. Sure there are things like marketing and printing. There are a lot of other little things too. Content editing. Publishers often hire another person who is at least or more knowledgeable on the subject to review what the author says. They make sure that all the code works, does it make sense in certain contexts etc. When code doesn't work, its the reviewer's fault.

There are other things too like a content editor. Does the entire book flow together (2+ authors, that's a big deal). Is the language style the same? Are there spelling and punctuation errors? Is the formatting correct? Someone has to build the index at the back of the book. (Sometimes the author does this). Lots of things. Not to mention, the company puts their name behind the book. I buy a lot of books simply based on the publisher and pass on others. As an author, you're paying them to lend their reputation to your work.

Re: Writing a software book and making over $100k

#36

Post by asicsp »

jonstewart wrote: post #33
asicsp wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> money should not be main motivator for writing a book. I know my case is an extreme corner case, but I did finally try my hand at writing a book to make money. Long story short, I left my job, was living on my savings, tried a few things, etc. The only active earning came via 1/2 workshops I conducted at my college. I started maintaing materials for those workshops and expanded it on my own interest and tried to ge…

Do you mind me asking how ~$250 is enough to cover your expenses for 2 months? That amount is so low for anyone in the US that the anecdote reads more as proof that it’s not worth it to write a book for the income. :-)

I'm from India and currently live in outskirts of a city. I'm living in a rented place, otherwise my expenses (currently about $150 per month) would be even lesser. I also employ a maid for cleaning/washing purposes. $150 translates to more than Rs.10000 and that puts me above the average income in my country.

Re: Writing a software book and making over $100k

#37

Post by eafkuor »

xchaotic wrote: post #19

I consider this a success story similar to an NBA star making it. So if 100k is very successful in terms of computer book revenues, then I’d say money should not be the main motivation to do it, as there’s better, more reliable ways to earn money in the software industry - working for any SP500 company will easily get you the same amount of money in less than a year, more or less guaranteed. I know it’s not either or…

> working for any SP500 company will easily get you the same amount of money in less than a year

If you live in the US. Which I'm (maybe wrongly) going to assume the author doesn't. 100k dollars is a life changing amount of money in a lot of countries.

Re: Writing a software book and making over $100k

#38

Post by vladmihalcea »

xchaotic wrote: post #19

I consider this a success story similar to an NBA star making it. So if 100k is very successful in terms of computer book revenues, then I’d say money should not be the main motivation to do it, as there’s better, more reliable ways to earn money in the software industry - working for any SP500 company will easily get you the same amount of money in less than a year, more or less guaranteed. I know it’s not either or…

> I’d say money should not be the main motivation to do it

It depends on how you approach this investment. For me, a book is like any other product I make. It takes a certain amount of resources to produce and launch it, and it should generate at least as much revenue as I would have made if I had chosen to do consulting instead.

However, selling products can scale better than consulting. So, over time, you could end up making more money from a certain product (e.g., book, video course) than if you were employed or doing consulting.

Re: Writing a software book and making over $100k

#39

Post by vladmihalcea »

eafkuor wrote: post #37
xchaotic wrote: post #19

I consider this a success story similar to an NBA star making it. So if 100k is very successful in terms of computer book revenues, then I’d say money should not be the main motivation to do it, as there’s better, more reliable ways to earn money in the software industry - working for any SP500 company will easily get you the same amount of money in less than a year, more or less guaranteed. I know it’s not either or…

> working for any SP500 company will easily get you the same amount of money in less than a year If you live in the US. Which I'm (maybe wrongly) going to assume the author doesn't. 100k dollars is a life changing amount of money in a lot of countries.

> Which I'm (maybe wrongly) going to assume the author doesn't.

I'm not living in the US. I live in Romania. In Europe, salaries are not as high as the ones in California. But then, even in the US, the Silicon Valley salaries are much higher than in other states.

The great thing about selling products is that there is no upper boundary to how much money you can make. So, over time, you can end up making 250k $ from a single book.

The advantage of passive income is that you can use your time to create new products, which, in turn, can generate more income. It's not easy, but it's not impossible either.

Re: Writing a software book and making over $100k

#40

Post by petercooper »

xchaotic wrote: post #19

I consider this a success story similar to an NBA star making it. So if 100k is very successful in terms of computer book revenues, then I’d say money should not be the main motivation to do it, as there’s better, more reliable ways to earn money in the software industry - working for any SP500 company will easily get you the same amount of money in less than a year, more or less guaranteed. I know it’s not either or…

working for any SP500 company will easily get you the same amount of money in less than a year

Horses for courses, as we say in the UK, but working for an SP500 company means a boss, reporting, office politics, and spending most of the day doing things that other people want you to to do. If you're independently minded and want to break out of that world, stories like the OP's are nice to see.

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