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Writing a technical book: from idea to print

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Re: Writing a technical book: from idea to print

#11

Post by forrestbrazeal »

Having recently released a "technical" book with a large traditional publisher (Wiley) [0], here are a few of my learnings:

- Expect nothing from the publisher in terms of marketing support. In fact, a good nonfiction book proposal is going to spend most of its length explaining to the publisher how you will sell the book for them through your connections and credibility - not the other way around. It's all on you.

- Don't do it for the money. You're going to make 10-15% of a pretty small pie. If you want to write info products as a moneymaking side gig and you have any following at all, self publish!

So why go with a traditional publisher? I don't feel this is fully articulated in the OP, but here was my reasoning:

- The publisher probably will get your book in the hands of a larger absolute number of people, so if you care about maximizing readership and you don't have a stupid-large online following, their network effects through bookstores, library sales, etc will help you sell more copies than you could on your own (though again, you'll see very little of the money!)

- There's still some social proof involved with traditional publishing, and it's a nice thing to do once - just so you know in the back of your head that you "can"

- In my case, I was producing a highly graphic book that really doesn't work except in print and in full color, and I needed the resources of a traditional publishing house to make it not look terrible.

The Wiley experience was overall positive for me and I don't regret it, but if I ever produce a text-based info product in future it's hard to look away from the ROI advantages of self-publishing.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Read-Aloud-Cloud-Innocents-Inside/dp/...

Re: Writing a technical book: from idea to print

#12

Post by ghaff »

forrestbrazeal wrote: post #11

Having recently released a "technical" book with a large traditional publisher (Wiley) [0], here are a few of my learnings: - Expect nothing from the publisher in terms of marketing support. In fact, a good nonfiction book proposal is going to spend most of its length explaining to the publisher how you will sell the book for them through your connections and credibility - not the other way around. It's all on you. -…

>The publisher probably will get your book in the hands of a larger absolute number of people,

Maybe. On the other hand, the publisher sets the price which may be higher than you'd want to set it to maximize readership. For that matter, if you really don't care about bringing money in, you can even make a digital version (or a subset of one) available for free--which I've done in the past.

Re: Writing a technical book: from idea to print

#13

Post by petr25102018 »

forrestbrazeal wrote: post #11

Having recently released a "technical" book with a large traditional publisher (Wiley) [0], here are a few of my learnings: - Expect nothing from the publisher in terms of marketing support. In fact, a good nonfiction book proposal is going to spend most of its length explaining to the publisher how you will sell the book for them through your connections and credibility - not the other way around. It's all on you. -…

Did you create the illustrations yourself or the publisher managed to do them for you?

Re: Writing a technical book: from idea to print

#14

Post by forrestbrazeal »

petr25102018 wrote: post #13
forrestbrazeal wrote: post #11

Having recently released a "technical" book with a large traditional publisher (Wiley) [0], here are a few of my learnings: - Expect nothing from the publisher in terms of marketing support. In fact, a good nonfiction book proposal is going to spend most of its length explaining to the publisher how you will sell the book for them through your connections and credibility - not the other way around. It's all on you. -…

Did you create the illustrations yourself or the publisher managed to do them for you?

I did them myself. Back to the "social proof" thing, the book is the outgrowth of a fairly successful webcomic I've done off and on for a few years [0], which was attractive to the publisher.

[0] https://faasandfurious.com

Re: Writing a technical book: from idea to print

#15

Post by petr25102018 »

jacques_chester wrote: post #8
gregdoesit wrote: post #2

This is a nice summary, and shows the benefit of working with a publisher, when you are writing a book that is similar to ones they have published already. You get a lot of support, and will definitely benefit distribution-wise later as well. Congratulations to the author - especially on publishing relatively quickly, in 10 months from the idea! And it's very nice to read that all royalties are going to Girls Who Cod…

I've been working on my first book with Manning (should be out in the next few months). Without the structure a publisher provides it's likely I would not have come even vaguely close to finishing. The marketing is icing, really.

Even though I wouldn't want the publisher to make the outline of my book for me, I have to say that Manning books were some of my favourites. Their structure is pretty good.

Re: Writing a technical book: from idea to print

#16

Post by forrestbrazeal »

ghaff wrote: post #12
forrestbrazeal wrote: post #11

Having recently released a "technical" book with a large traditional publisher (Wiley) [0], here are a few of my learnings: - Expect nothing from the publisher in terms of marketing support. In fact, a good nonfiction book proposal is going to spend most of its length explaining to the publisher how you will sell the book for them through your connections and credibility - not the other way around. It's all on you. -…

>The publisher probably will get your book in the hands of a larger absolute number of people, Maybe. On the other hand, the publisher sets the price which may be higher than you'd want to set it to maximize readership. For that matter, if you really don't care about bringing money in, you can even make a digital version (or a subset of one) available for free--which I've done in the past.

well, yes and no.

On the one hand, if maximizing eyeballs is really the only reason you want to write a book, maybe it should just be a blog post.

On the other hand, the publisher can and does negotiate price to do volume deals with retailers. Barnes and Noble buys in bulk at a price we can assume is optimal for them.

Re: Writing a technical book: from idea to print

#17

Post by petr25102018 »

ghaff wrote: post #5
petr25102018 wrote: post #4

I am also now writing my first book ( https://efficientdeveloper.com/ ) and it is really difficult, especially during Covid times (my original idea of writing this book was writing it on a transatlantic cruise... ) What you realise when writing a book is that every sentence gets rewritten 3 times, even before you start caring about proofreading. With all the research and decision making, publishing etc. it takes much…

It really is. I've been going through a fairly significant book revision the past few months. Of course it's been more work than I thought--even though I should have known better. However, even though I'm making quite a few changes/additions including a new chapter, it's a lot easier to patch something that exists than starting with a blank page. The fact that I don't need to churn out a huge number of words lets me…

I think that's true. If larger software projects need more time and resources than small ones (when comparing effort per LOC), I am pretty sure that with books it is the same.

And I agree with the blank page... The more of the book is written, the easier it gets (I think).

Re: Writing a technical book: from idea to print

#18

Post by ghaff »

forrestbrazeal wrote: post #16
ghaff wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The publisher probably will get your book in the hands of a larger absolute number of people, Maybe. On the other hand, the publisher sets the price which may be higher than you'd want to set it to maximize readership. For that matter, if you really don't care about bringing money in, you can even make a digital version (or a subset of one) available for free--which I've done in the past.

well, yes and no. On the one hand, if maximizing eyeballs is really the only reason you want to write a book, maybe it should just be a blog post. On the other hand, the publisher can and does negotiate price to do volume deals with retailers. Barnes and Noble buys in bulk at a price we can assume is optimal for them.

I think there is some value (for the right project) in longer form works that aren't just a series of independent articles. Of course, nothing wrong with publishing excerpts. There's also nothing wrong with writing a shorter book if that fits the subject matter. Just because the economics of the publishing industry tend to force length to 250+ pages doesn't mean you can't do a 75-100 page book on your own.

I'm not sure how important physical books are outside of Amazon at this point.

But YMMV of course. I'm in a situation where my books are about gaining credibility and visibility. The money is very incidental.

Re: Writing a technical book: from idea to print

#19

Post by throwaway_pdp09 »

forrestbrazeal wrote: post #11

Having recently released a "technical" book with a large traditional publisher (Wiley) [0], here are a few of my learnings: - Expect nothing from the publisher in terms of marketing support. In fact, a good nonfiction book proposal is going to spend most of its length explaining to the publisher how you will sell the book for them through your connections and credibility - not the other way around. It's all on you. -…

Point 1 is familiar; of expecting nothing from the publisher, only extend that to nothing at all. A relative of mine wrote a technical book, got nothing from the publisher in terms of support, advice or feedback, and when published they did absolutely zero marketing.

Other than putting ink on paper, absolutely nothing.

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