So you want to write a technical book • Hacker News Board

Re: So you want to write a technical book

#21

Post by authorthrowaway » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 2:04 PM UTC

shantnutiwari wrote: post #8

Going 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…

> Going via traditional publishing is a fools game

That depends very strongly on the publisher, and if you go with one of the industry leaders than it can be a very useful decision to go the traditional publishing route.

No Starch and Manning are both excellent publishers with fantastic teams. You'll get lots of attention from experienced editors, teams of talented people assisting you throughout that process, and very nice distribution channels. I've known many authors that have worked with these publishers and none of them have regretted it.

If you purely care about the money, then I think self publishing for a niche audience is probably the best route, though you have to put some extra energy into marketing. The math just works out that much higher royalties on a smaller audience means more direct income.

But if you want to make a really excellent book, and would like to be able to walk in to a Barnes and Noble and see it on the shelf, then going with an experienced, quality publisher can make a notable difference.

Re: So you want to write a technical book

#22

Post by commandlinefan » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 2:14 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #18

shantnutiwari wrote: post #8

Going 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…

I agree with all of this. I wrote a book for Packt many years ago (2005-ish?), and I was kind of underwhelmed about the whole experience. The editors were not native speakers of English, and introduced grammatical errors into the book. They published the wrong version of chapters I submitted. (Things would be revised after feedback from editors, I would revise later chapters for continuity with future chapters, etc.)…

Counter-anecdote - I published a book through Wiley about 10 years ago and I felt like they added a lot of value. They had a copy editor proofread the book carefully and I was really amazed at how she was able to focus on the grammar in spite of the fact that she didn't understand (or much care to understand) the subject material at all. They punched up the title and the presentation a bit and did all the marketing - I'm sure I never would have been on the shelves at B&N if I had self-published.

Re: So you want to write a technical book

#23

Post by commandlinefan » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 2:18 PM UTC

so_throwaway wrote: post #14

grammarnazzzi wrote: post #10

So 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 tha…

"So you want to do X" is a standard phrase which is used to introduce advice on how to do something, or why not to do it. See the poem "so you want to be a writer" by Charles Bukowski.

Without the "so", the title reads like an order.

Re: So you want to write a technical book

#24

Post by jordanmorgan10 » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 2:50 PM UTC

I couldn't be happier with self publishing. As someone who is an expert at overthinking things, I finally just bit the bullet and went with what was easiest - for me, that was Gumroad.

Even in early access, it is nearing $100k since I opened it up for sale May. The best part of self publishing is I've kept nearly all of that money.

Re: So you want to write a technical book

#25

Post by jdlshore » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 4:12 PM UTC

shantnutiwari wrote: post #8

Going 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…

(Author of The Art of Agile Development, which just came out with a second edition.)

I don’t agree that going with a publisher is a fool’s game. Yes, they take the majority of the income of the book, but most technical books don’t do all that well anyway. In return, they provide credibility and marketing support, as well as a certain amount of editing (depends on the publisher) and infrastructure support (ISBN, getting the book into stores, etc.)

For me, the credibility and marketing is more valuable than the money to be made. I spent a full year writing the new edition, close to full time, and I’ll likely never be paid what I’m worth for that time. But going with O’Reilly as my publisher means that a lot more people will hear about and read the book, and that’s a win to me.

Re: So you want to write a technical book

#26

Post by Turing_Machine » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 7:05 PM UTC

shantnutiwari wrote: post #8

Going 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…

> 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.

Hmm... it seems to me that it would be better to have it in every marketplace. If someone's looking for a book on Amazon, you'll lose the sale entirely. 30% is better than 0%, yes?

While I may follow a link to gumroad or whatever from a blog post or something, I never go there if I'm just looking for a book on my own initiative. It's always Amazon. If your book isn't on Amazon, I likely won't even see it. Yes, that probably means I'm lazy. But I suspect I'm not the only one.

Re: So you want to write a technical book

#27

Post by d13 » Thu, Oct 28, 2021, 8:45 PM UTC

pikrzyszto wrote: post #7

magicloop wrote: post #3

I'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?

Yes, the Byrds, 1967: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_You_Want_to_Be_a_Rock_%27...

Re: So you want to write a technical book

#28

Post by cable » Fri, Oct 29, 2021, 2:04 AM UTC

authorthrowaway wrote: post #21

shantnutiwari wrote: post #8

Going 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…

> Going via traditional publishing is a fools game That depends very strongly on the publisher, and if you go with one of the industry leaders than it can be a very useful decision to go the traditional publishing route. No Starch and Manning are both excellent publishers with fantastic teams. You'll get lots of attention from experienced editors, teams of talented people assisting you throughout that process, and ve…

+1 for Manning, I've co-authored two "In Action" books and the experience was excellent throughout.

Re: So you want to write a technical book

#29

Post by jrockway » Fri, Oct 29, 2021, 6:48 PM UTC

commandlinefan wrote: post #22

jrockway wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with all of this. I wrote a book for Packt many years ago (2005-ish?), and I was kind of underwhelmed about the whole experience. The editors were not native speakers of English, and introduced grammatical errors into the book. They published the wrong version of chapters I submitted. (Things would be revised after feedback from editors, I would revise later chapters for continuity with future chapters, etc.)…

Counter-anecdote - I published a book through Wiley about 10 years ago and I felt like they added a lot of value. They had a copy editor proofread the book carefully and I was really amazed at how she was able to focus on the grammar in spite of the fact that she didn't understand (or much care to understand) the subject material at all. They punched up the title and the presentation a bit and did all the marketing -…

Yeah, a reputable publisher could add a lot of value. I've never read a bad O'Reilly book, for example.

I think my conclusion is -- don't write a book unless you really want to write a book. Nobody but your parents are going to care that your book is in a bookstore. No software engineering interviewer is going to let you skip the interview because you wrote a book. The only reason you should do it is because you want to share your knowledge with the world. That is a valuable pursuit, but you will be undercompensated for it.

(Fun story... many years ago, a Google recruiter reached out to me with a little survey; rate yourself from 1-10 in these categories. They said 10 was "literally wrote a book on this subject". I answered 10 for web frameworks, which I had in fact written a book on! They ghosted me. But I did end talking with another recruiter, and ended up working at Google for 6 years, so... I guess it worked out.)