4 ms·

Passive income: income not related to current/recent work. Writing is a bit like an investment. It can pay off later.

by tgv 5y ago

baby 5y ago
That’s not what passive income is. Passive income is earning by doing nothing, which is what happens when you write a book.
- pjc50 5y ago
  I can hear my author friends gathering to beat you to death with hardbacks at the suggestion that writing a book is "doing nothing".
  - emteycz 5y ago
    I can hear my author friends gathering to beat you with hardbacks at the suggestion they're wage-slaving, too! More seriously, I agree it's hard to write a book - but I don't think you can claim it's just like normal job when you wrote it in 3 months and it keeps earning you money for years and it's more than a full-time job would earn you.
    - pjc50 5y ago
      > I don't think you can claim it's just like normal job when you wrote it in 3 months and it keeps earning you money for years and it's more than a full-time job would earn you. No, but that definitely puts you in the 1% of authors!
      - emteycz 5y ago
        Not me, unfortunately... And I live in a low CoL area, so my friends aren't rich either
  - baby 5y ago
    I’m actually an author and I’m getting paid continuously for zero work now. I totally categorize my books as passive income.
Namari 5y ago
Passive income is income that can be earned automatically with minimal labor to earn or maintain. I guess you can't really call that passive if you spend time working for it. It's not like an investment that you buy once and gives your income each month. PS: Sadly writing can pay off as much as giving you nothing (money wise).
- kahon65 5y ago
  As I pointed in a comment I've written, books income are actually automatically earned, since the author doesn't need to promote his books (Amazon's upvote system, e.g.). (however: it's an hypothesis for the moment because he didn't communicate about that). Labor to write his book is low labor, since he writes books <=100 pages, he enjoys that, and it is far less stressing than working for someone (employer/customer). In fact it makes him feeling happy and, perhaps, relaxed. However, the author would be welcome to clearly indicate weither or not this required labor is actually "low one" or not, because he didn't communicate about that. Maintaining his books: the author doesn't communicate about that but maintenance operations on books seem low labor too, far less than code maintenance. Those books incomes, I see them as passive(writting a book once, over a period of several months probably, then eventually getting money each month is as worth as investments, except that investments are done in few seconds with some money needed to be brought - for books written: no money is needed to be brought, but it takes months contrary to few seconds to be done). Moreover, they can be extended by bank investments or Bitcoin investments, extending their "passive"-side. > PS: Sadly writing can pay off as much as giving you nothing (money wise). Exact. But the author writes no books > 100 pages and he has even written a sentence about this. PS: if we define "labor" by "spent money", then writting and publishing a book (and ebook) is also low labor since very few $$$ are required to be bring by the author, like computer science projects. > Note that: bank investment need lots of money to be done. Writting books, no. Bank investment need a few seconds to be done. Writting books, several months. I think they are equivalent and, thus, are both ways to earn passive incomes. ("equivalence" from a money point of view and almost from a labor point of view, if we consider that bank investments's initial brought money is only due to labor, not inheritance, etc.)
  - 5y ago
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
vegai_ 5y ago
If we're trying to figure out the total benefits that come from writing a book, we probably shouldn't dismiss how much writing a book compels one to improve in various ways.

Passive income: income not related to current/recent work. Writing is a bit like an investment. It can pay off later.

by tgv 5y ago

Passive income: income not related to current/recent work. Writing is a bit like an investment. It can pay off later.

baby 5y ago

That’s not what passive income is. Passive income is earning by doing nothing, which is what happens when you write a book.

pjc50 5y ago
I can hear my author friends gathering to beat you to death with hardbacks at the suggestion that writing a book is "doing nothing".
- emteycz 5y ago
  I can hear my author friends gathering to beat you with hardbacks at the suggestion they're wage-slaving, too! More seriously, I agree it's hard to write a book - but I don't think you can claim it's just like normal job when you wrote it in 3 months and it keeps earning you money for years and it's more than a full-time job would earn you.
  - pjc50 5y ago
    > I don't think you can claim it's just like normal job when you wrote it in 3 months and it keeps earning you money for years and it's more than a full-time job would earn you. No, but that definitely puts you in the 1% of authors!
    - emteycz 5y ago
      Not me, unfortunately... And I live in a low CoL area, so my friends aren't rich either
- baby 5y ago
  I’m actually an author and I’m getting paid continuously for zero work now. I totally categorize my books as passive income.

Namari 5y ago

Passive income is income that can be earned automatically with minimal labor to earn or maintain. I guess you can't really call that passive if you spend time working for it. It's not like an investment that you buy once and gives your income each month. PS: Sadly writing can pay off as much as giving you nothing (money wise).

kahon65 5y ago
As I pointed in a comment I've written, books income are actually automatically earned, since the author doesn't need to promote his books (Amazon's upvote system, e.g.). (however: it's an hypothesis for the moment because he didn't communicate about that). Labor to write his book is low labor, since he writes books <=100 pages, he enjoys that, and it is far less stressing than working for someone (employer/customer). In fact it makes him feeling happy and, perhaps, relaxed. However, the author would be welcome to clearly indicate weither or not this required labor is actually "low one" or not, because he didn't communicate about that. Maintaining his books: the author doesn't communicate about that but maintenance operations on books seem low labor too, far less than code maintenance. Those books incomes, I see them as passive(writting a book once, over a period of several months probably, then eventually getting money each month is as worth as investments, except that investments are done in few seconds with some money needed to be brought - for books written: no money is needed to be brought, but it takes months contrary to few seconds to be done). Moreover, they can be extended by bank investments or Bitcoin investments, extending their "passive"-side. > PS: Sadly writing can pay off as much as giving you nothing (money wise). Exact. But the author writes no books > 100 pages and he has even written a sentence about this. PS: if we define "labor" by "spent money", then writting and publishing a book (and ebook) is also low labor since very few $$$ are required to be bring by the author, like computer science projects. > Note that: bank investment need lots of money to be done. Writting books, no. Bank investment need a few seconds to be done. Writting books, several months. I think they are equivalent and, thus, are both ways to earn passive incomes. ("equivalence" from a money point of view and almost from a labor point of view, if we consider that bank investments's initial brought money is only due to labor, not inheritance, etc.)
- 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

vegai_ 5y ago

If we're trying to figure out the total benefits that come from writing a book, we probably shouldn't dismiss how much writing a book compels one to improve in various ways.