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The Economics of Writing a Technical Book

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Re: The Economics of Writing a Technical Book

#141

Post by pc86 »

wink wrote: post #69

I once did a technical review for one of those small O'Reilly books (the German ones went for 10-15 EUR) - it was a lot of fun. I was paid in store credit, not cash, but it was a good deal because I did it mostly for the experience and then enjoyed some reading material. Sadly I've no clue how much the author made and if it was worth it financially. That said, just the thought of having to write a book makes me want…

How did you get on board as a technical reviewer? That seems really interesting.

Re: The Economics of Writing a Technical Book

#142

Post by pc86 »

opencl wrote: post #114
scottinseattle wrote: post #73

OK. Doesn't anyone else who read this now think, "Well gee why would I ever write a book then?" You could easily make $23 an hour as an entry-level server in a diner if you include tips.

That is absurdly high pay for a server, you'd be lucky to make half that in most places. I don't even make that much doing software development.

You make less than $920/wk as a developer, before taxes? Are you in eastern Europe?

I worked in a diner ca. 2002-04 and was paid $3/hr from the restaurant but routinely was close to $30/hr after tips as an awkward male teenager. Even $23 back then is equivalent to $35 now.

Re: The Economics of Writing a Technical Book

#143

Post by pc86 »

actuallyalys wrote: post #125
scottinseattle wrote: post #73

OK. Doesn't anyone else who read this now think, "Well gee why would I ever write a book then?" You could easily make $23 an hour as an entry-level server in a diner if you include tips.

You could easily make $23 an hour as an entry-level server in a diner if you include tips. I don't think this is true—the median pay for servers is $10 an hour in the U.S. [0] Even servers in areas with unusually high pay barely reach $23 an hour. [1] With a median personal income in the United States of $31,000 [2], most people make significantly less than $23 an hour. [0]: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/food-preparation-a…

Keep in mind this is going to be reported income only. When I was waiting tables nobody declared more than half their tips if they declared any at all. In fact a lot of folks just declared whatever amount they need to go to $10 an hour.

Re: The Economics of Writing a Technical Book

#144

Post by opencl »

pc86 wrote: post #142
opencl wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is absurdly high pay for a server, you'd be lucky to make half that in most places. I don't even make that much doing software development.

You make less than $920/wk as a developer, before taxes? Are you in eastern Europe? I worked in a diner ca. 2002-04 and was paid $3/hr from the restaurant but routinely was close to $30/hr after tips as an awkward male teenager. Even $23 back then is equivalent to $35 now.

Yes I make less than $920 a week, and I'm in the midwest US. Comparing this to Eastern Europe is ridiculous. ~60% of Americans make less than that. It seems like people in the ultra-expensive big cities have a really skewed idea of what the rest of the country is like.

Re: The Economics of Writing a Technical Book

#145

Post by commandlinefan »

outworlder wrote: post #132
commandlinefan wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the benefits of authorship were reputational LOL. I published a book through Wiley about 8 years ago. I got an advance which I did earn back, and I'm still earning a small bit on sales every year. Reputational? The only time it's ever come up was when I was interviewing for the job I have now and one of the interviewers asked, "oh, I notice you wrote a book about SSL. Do you know stuff besides SSL though?"

Did you continue the interview? That is a pretty big red flag for that interviewer.

Oh, actually I continued the interview, took the job, and work there now. They just didn't (and still don't) care much about my knowledge of SSL.

Re: The Economics of Writing a Technical Book

#146

Post by gmiller123456 »

pc86 wrote: post #105

> The contract stipulated that Kris and I own the copyright for the content, but O'Reilly has exclusive rights to use the content any way they see fit throughout the world now and in the future for the duration of the copyright. I'm a little confused by this. Can Justin and Kris use the content they own? Or does O'Reilly's exclusive use rights supersede their ownership?

"Exclusive" pretty much means exclusive. E.g. the publisher would not want to spend a lot of time and money into promoting a book, only to have the author have the same book available on his/her own website at a lower price with 100% of the profits.

A real world example of this is the US Chess Federation's rule book. The 5th edition was published in the early 90's, and a book was pretty much the only thing that made sense. After the web came about, a lot of people asked why the rules weren't available on-line, and the board members pointed to the agreement with the publisher that they had exclusive rights to publish the material. Of course with the latest edition of the book, they're still not publishing them on-line, so maybe there's more to the story.

Re: The Economics of Writing a Technical Book

#147

Post by gmiller123456 »

sytelus wrote: post #31

TLDR; the books on specific tech is lighly sold, gets out of date fast and publishers are ripping off authors by throwing them 10% revenue share. Because we co-authored the book we each got 5% of revenue for physical books and 12.5% for ebooks and digital access (10% and 25% for individual authors). So far I have received $539 over 5 months. On average, the book has sold 222 copies per month which is greatly skewed b…

Any idea how this works for subscription services? E.g. if someone subscribes to Safari Books Online and read your book, how much of the subscription fee goes to the authors?

Re: The Economics of Writing a Technical Book

#148

Post by JamesBarney »

pc86 wrote: post #120
JamesBarney wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$1000/day is pretty standard, and might even be low for someone who has the expertise and communication skills required to write a book. Even if that person had not written one. Companies routinely pay agency rates this high.

Agency rates bring an entire agency, though. Speaking from experience, companies will pay other companies multiple thousands a day for software implementations without a second thought but typically will fight paying a single person $250/hr to do the same job (even if it's a 1-person job).

Do you mean multiple thousands per day per person? Or multiple thousands per day for multiple people?

Re: The Economics of Writing a Technical Book

#149

Post by pc86 »

opencl wrote: post #144
pc86 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make less than $920/wk as a developer, before taxes? Are you in eastern Europe? I worked in a diner ca. 2002-04 and was paid $3/hr from the restaurant but routinely was close to $30/hr after tips as an awkward male teenager. Even $23 back then is equivalent to $35 now.

Yes I make less than $920 a week, and I'm in the midwest US. Comparing this to Eastern Europe is ridiculous. ~60% of Americans make less than that. It seems like people in the ultra-expensive big cities have a really skewed idea of what the rest of the country is like.

> ~60% of Americans make less than that.

What does median income have to do with anything? If you're writing software for a living you're doing a job most Americans can't. A job that is objectively worth much more than ~$40k a year. That's like saying a doctor can be paid $80k because he's in a low COL area and most Americans make less so whatever.

> Comparing this to Eastern Europe is ridiculous.

You're right because a lot of Eastern European devs make more than that.

> It seems like people in the ultra-expensive big cities have a really skewed idea of what the rest of the country is like.

If the average US cost of living is a 100 the area I live is 84 (San Francisco is 273). Omaha is 88. I don't live in an "ultra-expensive big city" and I've spent more time in rural Georgia than I have in urban California so I don't think I have a skewed idea of what people live on. But I do know my worth and I do know that $40k is objectively underpaid for software development.

Re: The Economics of Writing a Technical Book

#150

Post by mooreds »

pc86 wrote: post #117
mooreds wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be careful what you pick. I've done a couple of projects (book, video course) because the opportunity presented itself. Then, at the end of the projects I either was burnt out on it, or wasn't in a career position to take on consulting around it. So, nice resume burnisher and proof I can finish something, but not a springboard.

I think this speaks more to differences between people than anything else. If 5-10 extra hours a week for 6-12 months burns you out on a topic, writing a 250+ page technical book is probably not a great use of your time if the finances alone don't make it worth it.

Ah. I wasn't burned out because of the book, but because of what I'd been working on (I'm just not a mobile developer).

But the bigger issue is that I would write a book based on something that I was working on, and then stop working on it (because of different work priorities or because of changing jobs) and then not have any interest in updating the book.

Whereas I think, for a technical book to be really worth your while, you should really focus on an area and dive in and become an expert, and continue to work in that area after the book comes out (consulting, etc).

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