I earned $160k in passive income from writing non-fiction books • Hacker News Board

Re: I earned $160k in passive income from writing non-fiction books

#51

Post by radicalriddler » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:23 AM UTC

greglim81 wrote: post #3

xboxnolifes wrote: post #2

"Passive" has truly gone down the path of "literally".

passive in the sense that I wrote it once, and it continues to collect royalties for a long time after, without me having to do much :)

NOT for a long time after, because you're writing about frameworks that may be out of date in 12 months!

Re: I earned $160k in passive income from writing non-fiction books

#52

Post by baggy_trough » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:23 AM UTC

self_awareness wrote: post #50

abdel_nasser wrote: post #32

i am really interested in history and i have spent a lot of time looking for a good book on a certain topic or time period and sometimes not finding anything. it turns out that its really hard to find books that are completely objective, well researched and also written well. there is a scarcity of these kinds of books especially for modern history. and so the idea struck me that maybe i ought to write a short histor…

Is it even possible to write a completely objective book about history?

No, but one can try to avoid overt irritating biases.

Re: I earned $160k in passive income from writing non-fiction books

#53

Post by kome » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:24 AM UTC

tjr wrote: post #30

jamesfinlayson wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use HTML but it's not the best. Latex is probably a better option.

Is LaTeX still a good choice for "modern" ebooks? Do folks still want PDFs?

if i don't see a pdf, i don't buy it

Re: I earned $160k in passive income from writing non-fiction books

#54

Post by robinsonrc » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:24 AM UTC

How are you publishing and printing these?

Re: I earned $160k in passive income from writing non-fiction books

#55

Post by travisgriggs » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:32 AM UTC

greglim81 wrote: post #27

jmercouris wrote: post #14

There's a lot of spelling errors in this article.

yes yes. i gave up hope on this article having submitted it months ago. just tried it again today and hack, it went up #1.

This is one of the ironies of HN to me. It can feel like “you’re keeping up with trends” by following HN regularly.

And then you experience this (either firsthand or secondhand) and realize just how completely randomly arbitrary it is if your submission floats to the “top 30” or not.

Which doesn’t mean it’s not still worthwhile reading (I still follow regularly), it’s just that it’s more like a daily fortune cookie than it is any sort of “curated by popular consensus.”

Re: I earned $160k in passive income from writing non-fiction books

#56

Post by esjeon » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:38 AM UTC

xboxnolifes wrote: post #2

"Passive" has truly gone down the path of "literally".

Yeah, I don't think this is really "passive", mainly because his "works" are quite time-sensitive and short-lived... I'm not saying the OP did something wrong or bad or anything. It just looks more like he worked extra hours for extra income. I've seen some people who work >12 hours a day (main + side) and earn >$100k/year, and this case feels much more natural if I think this way.

Re: I earned $160k in passive income from writing non-fiction books

#57

Post by lifeisstillgood » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:42 AM UTC

So, does this work outside of tech? Would a bus driver or a accountant be able to enjoy similar success?

Re: I earned $160k in passive income from writing non-fiction books

#58

Post by gcheong » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:42 AM UTC

daenz wrote: post #15

I've considered writing a book on how to grow software through different evolutions, and using different software paradigms that make sense for the different stages of growth. I don't think there's an audience for it though, or at least an audience that would respect the opinions of a non-credentialed author.

It would seem the knowledge of how to grow software through different stages is most likely best gained through experience rather than credentials so I think sharing your knowledge based on your hard-won experience would be more valuable than that of someone writing from a more academic perspective.

Re: I earned $160k in passive income from writing non-fiction books

#59

Post by haspok » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:45 AM UTC

I wonder which formats are selling better: the paperback or the Kindle versions?

Re: I earned $160k in passive income from writing non-fiction books

#60

Post by zerr » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 5:47 AM UTC

techdragon wrote: post #45

achow wrote: post #28

Thank you for helpful tips! Solid advice: Write Short and Concise Books. Instead of writing a 500-page book selling for $50 (which probably few will buy), write a 100-page book and sell it for lesser which greatly increases the number of buyers! ...It fits in Amazon’s price range of $2.99 — $9.99 (gets 70% royalties for ebooks). Anything lesser or more gets 35% royalty. This is for the ebook version. Paperbacks have…

That explains why the entire market for depth content at a higher price has basically collapsed… what a shitty deal. Want to charge more than $10… that’s a pretty nice book you have there… shame if something happened to your royalties…”

I guess one should split to Part I, Part II, ...