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I support everyone who writes their own textbook or programming book. It is a great use of time and I would much rather someone do this than play video games al

I support everyone who writes their own textbook or programming book. It is a great use of time and I would much rather someone do this than play video games all day. I have a few books in progress, some farther along than others, and seeing posts like this with actual numbers on revenue is extremely helpful. After all the work he did, he made about $150k so far. Honestly that isn’t a lot of money for his expertise and the amount of time he put into it - if he moonlighted as a consultant for those hours he would have made more, with less to show for it.

wainstead 7y ago
> I have a few books in progress, some farther along than others, and seeing posts like this with actual numbers on revenue is extremely helpful. This. You might find @b0rk's post on her zine sales interesting: https://jvns.ca/blog/2019/10/01/zine-revenue-2019/ https://jvns.ca/blog/2019/10/01/zine-revenue-2019/
timClicks 7y ago
My book (Rust in Action) isn't quite finished yet, but I've made ~4k pre-sales through Manning's Early Access Program. The majority of sales (2.7:1) are ebooks. I expect that will change when things get to print. The most effective marketing strategy for me has been to just be active in relevant communities. This tweet (https://twitter.com/timClicks/status/1154300574151483394 https://twitter.com/timClicks/status/1154300574151483394) netted me over 300 sales, for example. The royalties are _far_ less for me than the $15 that Kun has been able to achieve, however. Using a traditional publisher achieves about $2.5/sale for me. Although the retail price is $40, it's often heavily discounted. I have 0 influence over the price sold.