So you want to write a technical book
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So you want to write a technical book
1–10 of 29 posts
Re: So you want to write a technical book
#2Gotchas with traditional publishing is shocking, especially the "Deep discounts" part.
>It turns out that a 55% discount was the standard wholesale rate for many booksellers, including Amazon. The publisher lied straight to my face.
I started with self publishing since I was writing 100 page niche programming books. My main marketing startegy is giving away books for free often, which turned out to be more effective than asking for donations.
Re: So you want to write a technical book
#3I'm an author of a book also published through Amazon Direct Publishing. I've documented how my book is put together with source code, so if you want to produce something suitable for self-publishing, have a look at:
https://github.com/faisalmemon/ios-crash-dump-analysis-book
I make very little money on the book itself because I have a free web-based version hosted on GitHub. However, I don't know how many sales I've foregone because of this.
Curious thing about it is that the GitHub analytics tells you how interested people are in your book. My in-progress book has much more interest just from the analytics. (The Road to Zero. This book explains how to develop your own zero day vulnerabilities for iOS.)
Another thing I think is important is to know the difference between a subject book and a topic book. Subject books provide a wide coverage for a domain. You can make a lot of money if it is a hit. Topic books drill just one detail but authoritatively and comprehensively, so gain you reputation rather than money.
For me, the pleasure is in the research and writing of a book, and having people read it. Professionally, I see it as advertising for my skills. I've landed a FANG role as a result and it certainly makes contracting for roles easier.
Re: So you want to write a technical book
#4I've published a book on Go and one on Python on Leanpub with the "pay whatever you want model"
I got much more money + satisfaction via this and organic traffic + reddit posting than what a top publisher was going to give me for a book
They were going to give me 40k INR as upfront deposit and then some % on 1000 copies sold
Contrast that with Leanpub, 1000s have downloaded my Go book, most of them have for free, while some have paid. Win-win.
It is a big deal for me that 1000s have downloaded my book! Have received good feedback on email too from few. So overall, I love self publishing for technical publishing!
Re: So you want to write a technical book
#5Writing a non-fiction (technical oriented) book is on my to-do list for the next 1-2 years, so this post is very much appreciated.
One thing I've noticed a lot when it comes to advice for traditional and self-published authors alike - having an active community around your expertise is essential.
Re: So you want to write a technical book
#6After talking to a handful of successful technical authors, they have all said - don't write a book for the money.
Re: So you want to write a technical book
#7I'm an author of a book also published through Amazon Direct Publishing. I've documented how my book is put together with source code, so if you want to produce something suitable for self-publishing, have a look at: https://github.com/faisalmemon/ios-crash-dump-analysis-book I make very little money on the book itself because I have a free web-based version hosted on GitHub. However, I don't know how many sales I've…
Do you happen to know where does the "So you want to" prefix originates from?
Re: So you want to write a technical book
#8Going via traditional publishing is a fools game. The author says you can get $10,000, but for most my books, publishers would only pay $2000. And even that amount is paid over 1-2 years.
And he's right about publishers trying sleazy things. Another thing they may ask for is "All future rights in any medium". So people who signed this clause in 90's/early 2000s lost right of their ebook/audiobooks, which are the most profitable.
I would not go with a traditional publisher unless you can afford to hire a lawyer who specialises in copyright law (and not an English lit graduate, which is what most agents are).
Self publishing-- from my experience:
* Typesetting has never been a problem, but then I write general programming books, and Leanpub handles the conversion really well.
* I never found copyediting/proofreading very useful for programming books (though I do use them for my fiction). Readers care more about technical accuracy-- ie, does the code work, does the text and code match. are instructions clear etc. A good set of 1st readers is very useful here.
The best way to make money is to sell digital copies via leanpub/gumroad, as these sellers pay 80-90% royalty. Amazon will only pay you 30% if you price your book over $9.99, which let's be honest, most technical books will be.
Nathan Barry popularised the formula of selling the book for $39+, and extras for higher pricing, and that works the best.
Re: So you want to write a technical book
#9After talking to a handful of successful technical authors, they have all said - don't write a book for the money.
I'm personally playing with the idea of starting a blog, not a book, in the mid future. I have tons of unpolished article drafts laying around.
On one side I'm painfully aware of the work required to write useful texts and the monetary incentive is almost non-existent. But what motivates me is to finally take a leap to try and be competent at writing in English, which is not my first language. As of now I'm terrible at it and I feel having a real project that people might consume in some way might be the best way to really learn that.
Secondly I think being able to communicate ideas clearly in an engaging fashion is very beneficial for someone in our field. Writing better documentation, clearer code, comments and specs all depend on that.
A book is a different undertaking all together in terms of scope and polish, but my guess is that the benefits might be in a similar category.
Re: So you want to write a technical book
#10So when I started at college, I took a freshman lit class. So first week, the professor assigns a book for us to read and report on. So I read the book, which was "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" by Carré and turn in my report on it.
So then instructor reads and grades our book reports and returns them to us. So I'm expecting all her markup to be related to my review of the story content. So I was surprised when I saw that she struck out the work "so" in my book report. So I can't remember her comment but it was something like "unneeded" or "trite". So I thought about that, and reread the sentence without the leading word "So" and found it clearer, not as cluttered and less pretentious.