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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

#221

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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. :)

Any link please? Why avoiding to answer here directly?

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

#222

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working in church ministry i wonder how much time the OP actually commits to work. My guess is they think they works 40 hours a week but actually doesn't.

i make sure not to take a lot of time to write a book. I don't write everyday. Perhaps just 3-4 days in a week? And at most 45 min per day. whenever i am busy with church, family, i will put writing down. Won't ever compromise them. And, its just a hobby i enjoy doing.

Ah - your day job isn't tech. Was wondering how you could get permission and time to do it.

Every tech job I've had here in SG expected full ownership of any and all IP created whilst an employee, no moonlighting, and always ended up consuming every waking second of my time anyway making the whole point moot.

Good on you for making it all balance and not only feeding your family but spending time with them too (which is bloody hard here).

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

#223

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As a spare-time writer of (self-published) German science fiction novels[1], I believe I have something to say about that. I don't believe that what you say is true in general. For me writing is effortless and a lot of fun, and I believe that it is effortless for most writers who are far more successful than me. Stephen King could have never written so much so persistently without thoroughly enjoying it. If you don't…

> Stephen King could have never written so much so persistently without thoroughly enjoying it. And? I didn't claim that he claimed not to enjoy it, I claimed that he said it's a struggle to get into the groove.

This claim is most likely taken out of context. As I've said, every writer struggles with something from time to time but that's not the same as what you've described in your post. I'm sorry if my reply offended you somehow, that wasn't my intention. My point was just that you're overgeneralizing. Every writer has their own work mode and everyone works differently, e.g. the German author Günter Grass used to write in handwritten calligraphy on special paper. What's easy for one is hard for someone else, and vice versa.

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

#224

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That dude is a machine. He wrote 4 secret novels during the pandemic on top of several regular ones.

I'm quite intrigued by his system of writing. It's nothing magical, he works on it hard and the process is roughly connecting various ideas together. He finds interesting ideas and write them down and then when the time is to go for a book, he tries to find ideas and concepts that work together. He then writes a rough outline of a book and then goes and fills in chapters after which he gets multiple reviews/revisions…

Depends a lot on the author. The best ones have a plot line that they follow.

But many major authors produce a book every 1 to 5 to 10 years. Game of Thrones being the big example.

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

#225
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i make sure not to take a lot of time to write a book. I don't write everyday. Perhaps just 3-4 days in a week? And at most 45 min per day. whenever i am busy with church, family, i will put writing down. Won't ever compromise them. And, its just a hobby i enjoy doing.

Ah - your day job isn't tech. Was wondering how you could get permission and time to do it. Every tech job I've had here in SG expected full ownership of any and all IP created whilst an employee, no moonlighting, and always ended up consuming every waking second of my time anyway making the whole point moot. Good on you for making it all balance and not only feeding your family but spending time with them too (which…

hello fellow sg!

yea, if my day job was tech (it was previously), i would be so sick of it and wouldn't touch it when I got home. But now, i don't touch it in my day job and it suddenly becomes a pleasure to tinker with.

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

#226

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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".

I agree!

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

#227

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Gotta sell it right? =)

I actually like the low 5-figure reality more because it seems more achievable and motivational for a side hustle

its enough! More than i can ask for. I am satisfied :)

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

#228

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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 t…

You are right.

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

#229
post #122

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It is though cause once it is published you get the income passively. However the topics of these books are perishable, so, have a end date

He has written 78 books - some of them make little to no money... or have stopped already. That's a lot of continuous work. The books are about current technologies that are bound to change, if the books are not updated/edited/etc. they are bound to stop making money as well. Anyways, writing that many book is not passive at any rate.

That's fair, it actually sounds more like a cookie shop where you need to keep baking the cookies for them to sell, even though these cookies can be sold multiple times you still need to keep baking some fresh ones.
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