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I guess I understand that, while providing a good insight into royalties in general, the article left out something more directly interesting: Was it worth, mo

I guess I understand that, while providing a good insight into royalties in general, the article left out something more directly interesting: Was it worth, monetary, to write the Geek Atlas? It wasn't written for the money, I read that. And I understand that the royalties are smallish, compared to the prices payed by the customers. But I do wonder if a book like that (targeted at a "minority", more a "novelty" thing from what I can tell) sells good enough to keep a single guy alive. So - in the light of the recent talks about salaries around the world in general and in NYC/the bay area specifically: John - would mind sharing a very rough estimate of sales for this book? (I guess the answer is "It's too personal", because otherwise it could've been part of the blog entry itself to further strengthen the "Not for the money" part, but hey - I guess it's always okay to ask politely)

jgrahamc 16y ago
I have made about 1/12 of my annual salary from the book. This is great, but I consider the fringe benefits of having the book much more important.
- Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
  And I'm guessing that the total effort was greater than 1 months work? Out of interest as an hourly rate did it come in above minimum wage?
  - jgrahamc 16y ago
    I spent six months in front of my computer writing the book and doing research, on top of time taken to visit the places (which is the result of a lifetime of traveling). I worked pretty much an 8 hour day. I was working in France at home so I would get up in the morning and start work on the book. I had always left myself something easy to work on the night before (such as a section of the book that I knew I could write) so that I was never blocked. I would take a long lunch with a glass of wine with my SO and then return to work on the book. I had a very detailed schedule of work and I put off bits of the book that were easy for me until the end so that I was forced to work on the hard bits first. I had a spreadsheet that would track my progress and predict my end date based on writing rate. This was very motivational and made sure that I hit my deadline with O'Reilly. Once the book was delivered there were 8 months between me handing in the manuscript and publication. This was longer than usual for O'Reilly because of the large number of illustrations in the book and the complexity of the book layout.
- darklajid 16y ago
  Thanks a lot for responding. This again is interesting in the light of the salary discussion from yesterday. Thinking out loud here I assume that JGC isn't living on anything near a minimum wage. 1/12 of that could certainly be 1/6 to 1/4 of a yearly salary elsewhere, again refering to the gap in salaries for basically doing a similar job. Which changes a lot about the ROI here, for me. Not that I want to undermine the effort you had to put into that project. I seriously cannot imagine or understand the work put into that book by you. And I certainly don't plan to write a book now... What really is interesting about this number game is mostly that I come from the opposite direction of guy that wrote the comment ("Living of your book royalties") that lead to your blog entry in the first place: I assumed creating a book would suck in terms of money in general (except for the obvious exceptional cases like Rowling) and for a minority target group specifically. Now, on the other hand, I can better understand why and how one could live off writing most of the time (obviously with numbers like yours you wouldn't be able to sustain a life in NYC, but again - the differences in cost of living and salaries showed that it should be possible elsewhere). Thanks a lot for sharing this.
  - jgrahamc 16y ago
    I seriously cannot imagine or understand the work put into that book by you It was a pleasure to spend the time on the book and if I had the means I would write another book. But I also need to make a living. If I get the time I'd like to do "The Apollo 11 Guidance Computer: Annotated Program Listing" :-)
    - darklajid 16y ago
      I suggest doing a "Kindle Edition Deluxe Pack" that comes with a physical snap-on cover to turn that thingy into a 2 column "DSKY" approximation with battery powered lights.. :) (No, I didn't remember the visuals of that component and was inspired by the Wikipedia entry..)
    - petercooper 16y ago
      I think most of us would love to see your take on that. However, in case anyone's interested, a book like that does already exist: http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Guidance-Computer-Architecture-Exploration/dp/1441908765/ http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Guidance-Computer-Architecture-... I haven't bought it yet but it's in my wishlist pending an Xmas purchase ;-)

jgrahamc 16y ago

I have made about 1/12 of my annual salary from the book. This is great, but I consider the fringe benefits of having the book much more important.

Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
And I'm guessing that the total effort was greater than 1 months work? Out of interest as an hourly rate did it come in above minimum wage?
- jgrahamc 16y ago
  I spent six months in front of my computer writing the book and doing research, on top of time taken to visit the places (which is the result of a lifetime of traveling). I worked pretty much an 8 hour day. I was working in France at home so I would get up in the morning and start work on the book. I had always left myself something easy to work on the night before (such as a section of the book that I knew I could write) so that I was never blocked. I would take a long lunch with a glass of wine with my SO and then return to work on the book. I had a very detailed schedule of work and I put off bits of the book that were easy for me until the end so that I was forced to work on the hard bits first. I had a spreadsheet that would track my progress and predict my end date based on writing rate. This was very motivational and made sure that I hit my deadline with O'Reilly. Once the book was delivered there were 8 months between me handing in the manuscript and publication. This was longer than usual for O'Reilly because of the large number of illustrations in the book and the complexity of the book layout.
darklajid 16y ago
Thanks a lot for responding. This again is interesting in the light of the salary discussion from yesterday. Thinking out loud here I assume that JGC isn't living on anything near a minimum wage. 1/12 of that could certainly be 1/6 to 1/4 of a yearly salary elsewhere, again refering to the gap in salaries for basically doing a similar job. Which changes a lot about the ROI here, for me. Not that I want to undermine the effort you had to put into that project. I seriously cannot imagine or understand the work put into that book by you. And I certainly don't plan to write a book now... What really is interesting about this number game is mostly that I come from the opposite direction of guy that wrote the comment ("Living of your book royalties") that lead to your blog entry in the first place: I assumed creating a book would suck in terms of money in general (except for the obvious exceptional cases like Rowling) and for a minority target group specifically. Now, on the other hand, I can better understand why and how one could live off writing most of the time (obviously with numbers like yours you wouldn't be able to sustain a life in NYC, but again - the differences in cost of living and salaries showed that it should be possible elsewhere). Thanks a lot for sharing this.
- jgrahamc 16y ago
  I seriously cannot imagine or understand the work put into that book by you It was a pleasure to spend the time on the book and if I had the means I would write another book. But I also need to make a living. If I get the time I'd like to do "The Apollo 11 Guidance Computer: Annotated Program Listing" :-)
  - darklajid 16y ago
    I suggest doing a "Kindle Edition Deluxe Pack" that comes with a physical snap-on cover to turn that thingy into a 2 column "DSKY" approximation with battery powered lights.. :) (No, I didn't remember the visuals of that component and was inspired by the Wikipedia entry..)
  - petercooper 16y ago
    I think most of us would love to see your take on that. However, in case anyone's interested, a book like that does already exist: http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Guidance-Computer-Architecture-Exploration/dp/1441908765/ http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Guidance-Computer-Architecture-... I haven't bought it yet but it's in my wishlist pending an Xmas purchase ;-)