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

greglim81.medium.com

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

#211

Post by sokoloff »

vidarh wrote: post #209
sokoloff wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That cut of the rent ends up being around all of the cash flow for a newly bought property, and in many markets ends up being more than the initial cash flow. It’s a second job with irregular on-call.

Well, then you've leveraged too highly. Estate agents here take a fairly small percentage of the rent to manage all of this, so it takes a fairly small deposit before your rental income less management fees can't cover the remaining mortgage.

Property management companies in the US take somewhere in the 8-12% range. Is it dramatically lower wherever you are?

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

#212

Post by daenz »

gcheong wrote: post #58
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.

Thanks for the encouragement!

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

#213

Post by sitkack »

xcambar wrote: post #73
sitkack wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or sell the intro for 9$ and provide a link to the tome inside the book to your own payment processor.

And get all your readers to shout at you for getting their readers to pay twice.

I can see how you might think that, but I actually really like the $9 100 page booklet and if I want to go deep, having the 250-500-∞ page book is something I would be willing to pay for in addition to the $9, maybe off a discount, but I don't think it should matter. I'd kinda like to be able to pay twice as it were and get condensed versions of books I already have.

I do understand that a shorter book might, and most likely does unless one has spent years thinking this way, take just as much or more effort than a longer book.

As @quickthrower2 mentioned, the email list. I like that, but unless I really want to follow something, I won't do email. What I am a sucker for is a cheat sheet or some infographic looking poster.

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

#215

Post by xtracto »

bilekas wrote: post #176
rexreed wrote: post #175

I think the word "passive" doesn't mean what he/we think it means. I had thought it meant the opposite of active, where active is an adjective that implies "action", which means actively doing something. Writing dozens of books over many years for about $10k/book sounds like a long, hard, very active slog. Not at all what I would consider passive income. Perhaps this should be called "My $160k side gig as a book writ…

I kind of agree, but at the same time, they only need to be written once and then he can 'sit back'. Infact, they're written before any income so technically you could say he did a lot of work and can sit back now. Semi-Passive maybe. The only 'true' passive income types I can think of is just inheriting a huge amount and having it sit earning interest ?

> I kind of agree, but at the same time, they only need to be written once and then he can 'sit back'.

Not for the type of books he has written. They are all technical books on specific frameworks (iOS, MongoDB, NodeJS). This reminds me of all the "Office 2001" or "Visual Basic Programming" that I saw in the "Computers" aisle the last time I went to a physical book store. Those books now are a dime a dozen.

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

#216

Post by marketerinland »

lelanthran wrote: post #86
joeberon wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes they are built different: one person has no struggles writing and actively loves it, cannot stop doing it; the other finds it effortful and painful. Those two people will have vastly different experiences writing the book. The former will gain energy and feel great, the latter will feel pressured and depressed. We are not all the same, we are all built different, don’t ignore this reality

>> You aren't built different. > Yes they are built different: one person has no struggles writing and actively loves it, cannot stop doing it; the other finds it effortful and painful. GP probably worded it poorly; yes, we're all built different, but all the successful authors who spoke about their experience all expressed similar struggles. Terry Pratchett said once (can't be bothered to look for the exact quote) t…

*SOME authors expressed struggles and this made the news.

There are many, many successful authors. Some of them, it just flows. One of the best selling non fiction authors in the world over the last 10 years is a friend of mine. He doesn’t describe it as a struggle.

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

#217

Post by junar »

kahon65 wrote: post #142
pjc50 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if we define "labor" by "spent money" And if my grandmother had wheels she'd be a wagon. This is obfuscating a useful distinction - labour is stuff you do, spending money in the hope of a return is investment. It's like trying to redefine landlordism as labour because you do occasionally have to do some work. > Moreover, they can be extended by bank investments or Bitcoin investments, extending their "passive"-side…

I was writting a long answer but finally, I decided to simply quote: > In the court's view, royalties are those items which constitute passive income, such as the compensation paid by a licensee to a licensor for the use of a Page 7 patented invention. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/eotopicd89.pdf Also, as you say, some royaltie are active incomes. But Passive royalties exist.

This article is about books. Book royalties are generally considered self-employment income, not passive income, under the tax code.

> However, if you hold an operating oil, gas, or mineral interest or are in business as a self-employed writer, inventor, artist, etc., report your income and expenses on Schedule C (Form 1040).

https://irs.gov/publications/p525#en_US_2021_publink10002292...

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

#218

Post by greglim81 »

kahon65 wrote: post #157
greglim81 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

about 2 months writing on the side for each book.

Including the research and reading steps necesary to collect the data to aggregate in your books you write? You say you have read the 3 top books and several tech blogs <--- what are they? What main sources did you read to collect the data? Maybe you won't answer since all your business is based on that, finally :-).

i document more on these in twitter. :)

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

#219

Post by vidarh »

sokoloff wrote: post #211
vidarh wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, then you've leveraged too highly. Estate agents here take a fairly small percentage of the rent to manage all of this, so it takes a fairly small deposit before your rental income less management fees can't cover the remaining mortgage.

Property management companies in the US take somewhere in the 8-12% range. Is it dramatically lower wherever you are?

Towards the low end of that, but even at 12% it just means you can afford lower leverage.

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

#220

Post by xcambar »

sitkack wrote: post #213
xcambar wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And get all your readers to shout at you for getting their readers to pay twice.

I can see how you might think that, but I actually really like the $9 100 page booklet and if I want to go deep, having the 250-500-∞ page book is something I would be willing to pay for in addition to the $9, maybe off a discount, but I don't think it should matter. I'd kinda like to be able to pay twice as it were and get condensed versions of books I already have. I do understand that a shorter book might, and mos…

I will have to try it to believe it, but I agree there's a certain appeal to having a condensed version of the contents for less, so you can get the meat of the book, while you can get all the details and references and documentation etc. for the full price.

What I won't buy though are the first 3-4 chapters of the book to be met with the "insert card for more".

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