On the other hand you can also publish (and sell) your body of work directly on the web.
It's easier than many would think!
Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?
11–20 of 147 posts
Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?
#12Most technical authors don't write a book for the money -- they write a book for the prestige (and proportionally higher consulting rates).
Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?
#13On the other hand you can also publish (and sell) your body of work directly on the web. It's easier than many would think!
Unless you are an experienced writer (and honestly, even then) you will still need a professional editor to help you create something that will get good reviews and that people will be willing to pay money for.
Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?
#14What is a fair, market-rate deal for a first-time technical author writing about a popular subject?
You're going to be shocked and dismayed by the offer they give you. Let's get that out of the way now. This is the model: they'll tell you to not do it for the money, in exactly those words, prior to explaining to you terms which imply that they're not doing it for ~92.5% of the money.
You will likely be offered something akin to a $5k advance and a 8% royalty rate on paperback sales with, perhaps, a modestly higher royalty rate on e-book sales. The advance is guaranteed contingent on milestones. The royalties first "earn out" the advance and then start getting actually paid to you. (i.e. You have to sell $5k/0.08 = $62,500 of books on those terms prior to receiving any additional money.)
Most tech authors do not earn out advances. You should expect to receive just the advance and then occasional minor payments ($1k to $2k) for foreign rights if the book turns out to be so popular that e.g. it gets translated into e.g. Japanese.
If you want to make money in writing books, it is very possible. You'll want to start collecting email addresses, start publishing more things which get more people interested in trading you their email address, publish the book yourself, and sell via your own site/email list. For bonus points, sell packages (book, book + videos, book + videos + code samples) and price much, much higher than you're comfortable with ($49/$99/$249 is popular and works well).
There exist numerous people on HN who have successful businesses doing the second model. Understand that the second model is far more akin to running a business than it is to writing books. This is true of writing books generally, but it is more obviously true when you don't have a publisher to blame for your marketing/sales outcomes.
Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?
#15What is a fair, market-rate deal for a first-time technical author writing about a popular subject? You're going to be shocked and dismayed by the offer they give you. Let's get that out of the way now. This is the model: they'll tell you to not do it for the money, in exactly those words, prior to explaining to you terms which imply that they're not doing it for ~92.5% of the money. You will likely be offered someth…
TL;DR self publish
Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?
#16I've written two books (O'Reilly and No Starch). Do it for the pleasure of having a physical token you can give to people as a gift. The money is poor, it takes forever, but when it's over you've written something and have learnt from it.
Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?
#17What is a fair, market-rate deal for a first-time technical author writing about a popular subject? You're going to be shocked and dismayed by the offer they give you. Let's get that out of the way now. This is the model: they'll tell you to not do it for the money, in exactly those words, prior to explaining to you terms which imply that they're not doing it for ~92.5% of the money. You will likely be offered someth…
As a first-time writer, you might not even be offered an advance (contingent or not). I certainly wasn't. My contract was merely royalties.
Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?
#18Please follow this. https://medium.com/@atnemecek/so-you-are-writing-a-tech-book...
Barry Eisler and JD Konrath have also written a lot on self-publishing.
Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?
#19It's generally agreed that you are unlikely to make money from the book alone, but there are other reasons for doing this too.
Is the topic is something that you really want to promote? Do you have the spare time to do this for the experience and learning alone? Will this lead to career advancement or consulting opportunities? Often things like this are the reasons why people write books.
It is going to take a lot of time though, so you need to make sure you can spare this time for what is not going to generate a large income on it's own.
Re: Ask HN: Considerations when asked to write a book?
#20I went into it for the "feather in my cap" and "fun experience" aspect as well. It's grueling, stressful, and the piddly amount of money you'll make for it doesn't do much for motivation. I stopped about 3/4ths of the way through writing it and finally admitted to myself that I couldn't go on.
Some other folks have put out information about the advances and royalties, and it's about what I saw as well. If you're doing it for the money, I think you'll be disappointed, but at least you can gauge that before accepting. If you go the self-publishing route, I'm sure the amount of money you can make can increase if you have the right network, but you may lose that sense of "making it" by being published by one of the big names.