Writing books is not really a good idea • Hacker News Board

Re: Writing books is not really a good idea

#61

Post by ellegriffin » Mon, May 10, 2021, 3:33 PM UTC

phillc73 wrote: post #20

ben_w wrote: post #2

That’s more than I was expecting given the 98% selling less than 5000 referenced in the opening paragraph. But then again, that 2.6 million books were sold is also more than I expected.

I was surprised by how low the reported total number of books is. Then I realised they're only reporting online book sales. However, the number still seems quite low.

Yes, it's only online book sales. NPD book wouldn't give me numbers on print sales. Though I learned in a previous article that print sales tend to be less than online sales.

Re: Writing books is not really a good idea

#62

Post by sidibe » Mon, May 10, 2021, 3:34 PM UTC

AS_of wrote: post #43

tarr11 wrote: post #23

I used to read a lot more books 10-20 years ago. Now, I mostly read books on vacation. I think I have an unspoken budget of “words read daily” that is consumed by work and my mobile devices.

As you get older, you should read fewer new books, and revisit the ones that have you the most joy. Vacation sounds like a great place for that! Edit: why? Because you believe in the leverage algorithms can provide https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Deci... There are probably a lot of single people here that would benefit from that book as well (the stopping problem) We all "know" the algos. But…

I'm always surprised when people talk about rereading books. I get absolutely nothing out of books I've already read. Do you also rewatch TV series?

Re: Writing books is not really a good idea

#63

Post by nullandvoid » Mon, May 10, 2021, 3:34 PM UTC

rmah wrote: post #16

nullandvoid wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2.6 million would mean 1 in 3000 people on earth, bought at least 1 book in the last year. That doesn't seem very surprising to me? Although I think you meant to write 27 million (268 * 100k) edit - ignore, I missed that it was 2.6m unique in the article

I think the 2.6 mil refers to the # of titles available for sale, not the number of copies sold.

Oops I skimmed the article and missed that - thanks.

Re: Writing books is not really a good idea

#64

Post by Karunamon » Mon, May 10, 2021, 3:34 PM UTC

AS_of wrote: post #28

solomonb wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Three paragraphs into the article is a chart that includes audio book sales.

Does that accurately represent the model of audible credits? Or just actual purchases of audio books?

Is the model reasonably different? The publisher doesn't get paid unless you spend a credit on their book.

Re: Writing books is not really a good idea

#65

Post by ChrisRR » Mon, May 10, 2021, 3:34 PM UTC

stakkur wrote: post #30

"98 percent of the books that publishers released" is the key phrase, and it's nothing new; the sell rate in traditional publishing has always been quite low. But this does not include books sold in all the other self-publishing ways.

Is it though? I highly doubt many self published authors are selling over 100k copies. That's a ton of logistics to deal with

Re: Writing books is not really a good idea

#66

Post by arsome » Mon, May 10, 2021, 3:34 PM UTC

AS_of wrote: post #43

tarr11 wrote: post #23

I used to read a lot more books 10-20 years ago. Now, I mostly read books on vacation. I think I have an unspoken budget of “words read daily” that is consumed by work and my mobile devices.

As you get older, you should read fewer new books, and revisit the ones that have you the most joy. Vacation sounds like a great place for that! Edit: why? Because you believe in the leverage algorithms can provide https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Deci... There are probably a lot of single people here that would benefit from that book as well (the stopping problem) We all "know" the algos. But…

Maybe it's just me, but I find marginal joy drops exponentially by repetition.

Re: Writing books is not really a good idea

#67

Post by fredgrott » Mon, May 10, 2021, 3:34 PM UTC

beambot wrote: post #11

> there were 2.6 million books sold online in 2020 and only 268 of them sold more than 100,000 copies I'm confused... just the top 0.0001% (268 x 100k) is 26.8M, yet they claim only 2.6M books were sold total for the full year. Am I missing something obvious?

they are comparing apples and orangs as total books sold is those sold online + those sold through bookstores.

That being said it points to not that writing books is not economical viable but that have someone else publish it is not economically viable!

My bias, I am self publishing my first book at the end of this year in flutter app dev with using paid article writing using Medium.com to pay the costs of setting up the LLC, and other costs such as purchasing a brand new mac laptop.

Note, since most people in tech do not buy 2nd screens just to read and use a book it's some skewed towards the 45k number in those niches, my own opinion. Most publisher advertising gets one to the 15k number which is why I am using a social-media and Medium article combined route to advertising the book.

Re: Writing books is not really a good idea

#68

Post by sremani » Mon, May 10, 2021, 3:36 PM UTC

sidibe wrote: post #62

AS_of wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As you get older, you should read fewer new books, and revisit the ones that have you the most joy. Vacation sounds like a great place for that! Edit: why? Because you believe in the leverage algorithms can provide https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Deci... There are probably a lot of single people here that would benefit from that book as well (the stopping problem) We all "know" the algos. But…

I'm always surprised when people talk about rereading books. I get absolutely nothing out of books I've already read. Do you also rewatch TV series?

Re-reading Pop-Psy and Airport literature is not the recommended reading. How about reading Hayek, Strauss for second time? How about reading man's search for meaning for the third time?

You re-read great works, not NYT best shiller! (sic).

Re: Writing books is not really a good idea

#69

Post by dudul » Mon, May 10, 2021, 3:37 PM UTC

dovrce wrote: post #57

Most new books aren't very good, and there's so much noise that only reading old books is a perfectly good strategy. The only recent stuff I buy and read is technology related, if I'm going to read a narrative book it's going to be > 1 year old

> Most new books aren't very good

I don't know if this is true, but I do struggle with finding recent interesting books.

The choice is often "Do I take a chance with this thing published last year? Or do I just pick up one of the 'classics' that I haven't read yet?"

I usually end up going with the latter simply because I don't want to spend many hours reading something that ends up being "meh" and I assume that going with something considered a "classic" is safer. Though they do occasionally end up disappointing :)

Re: Writing books is not really a good idea

#70

Post by macksd » Mon, May 10, 2021, 3:37 PM UTC

As others have pointed out, I don't think we have all the right data to really make conclusions, especially in a historical context here. But if the trend is exactly what the title is implying, I wonder if social networks are a contributing factor here and amplifying virality: more of the people who read are sharing / discussing what they're reading, and that's influencing more people to then go and read the same thing. Fewer people going and browsing the entire selection to pick out something they want to read.

I'm reading (well, listening to audiobooks) more than ever, but indeed I'm selecting things that are already significant topics for conversation, or books that were already made into movies (and thus are also popular). Beyond that, I'm consuming podcasts, etc. and things with business models closer to that the author is suggesting.