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I've been begging publishers to let me have a go at a ~100 page F# tutorial book, but they've told me again and again that books without a wide enough profile o
by Rickasaurus 15y ago
I've been begging publishers to let me have a go at a ~100 page F# tutorial book, but they've told me again and again that books without a wide enough profile on the shelf just won't sell.
It's sad really. I hope ePublishing fixes this.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoIt's not worth the trouble to go through a publisher anymore. You're not going to make any money on a tech book no matter how popular it is. The smart move in the modern age is to work on the book in the open with a blog and then self publish an ebook. If you like you can even sell it or ask for donations.
- Apocryphon 15y agoI'm starting to think that the ransom model is the wave of the future for self-publishing. If it can work for small-time written works publicized online like role-playing games, what about other kinds of books: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_pledge_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_pledge_system Think of it- if publishers won't agree, bypass them and drum up support by getting enough pledgers to prove them wrong. Then self-publish and have the last laugh.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoThe combination of kickstarter-like funding models complemented by transparent incremental development models (i.e. blog as you go to increase interest, release the finished product later, or construct a finished product from organic blog posts) certainly lowers the threshold substantially. More so, it increases the strength of monetary feedback to a degree that it becomes much more financially viable for writers to make a living off their works, especially for technical non-fiction. I'm very excited to see the tranformation of the writing profession that is upon us.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- windsurfer 15y agoWrite the book. Show it to HN. People will buy it!
- bricestacey 15y agoStart a project on Kickstarter and post on HN. http://www.kickstarter.com/ http://www.kickstarter.com/
- pnathan 15y agoIf you can put together a $30 F# book at 100 pages, I would consider buying it. There are a number of self-publishing options out there, I believe. Let Over Lambda is a Lulu print, I believe. I am sure that you could find someone to serve as editor for the book as well. (there's a consulting idea: book editor! )
- Rickasaurus 15y agoThanks. I'll think hard about doing this and see what happens.
- Adam503 15y agoCheck these guys out. They're trying new model book publishing, too. http://www.unbound.co.uk/ http://www.unbound.co.uk/
- nandemo 15y agoSo the blame is not really on the publishers, but rather on the average programmer who will choose books based on how verbose they are.