4 ms·

This is a funny post in the context of the overall substack. Basically all of his money has been generated by his FAANG job: "It’s been nearly 3 years since [I

This is a funny post in the context of the overall substack. Basically all of his money has been generated by his FAANG job: "It’s been nearly 3 years since [I joined FAANG] and I have managed to increase my salary to £150k and have had another stock refresh. I joined at a pretty good time and generally the stock is a lot higher than it was at the point of issue. Due to this, my total compensation for 2021 was around £350k. 2022 and 2023 are going to be less but still in a similar ball park" https://fatsoftwareengineer.substack.com/p/fire-fat-fire-and-me https://fatsoftwareengineer.substack.com/p/fire-fat-fire-and... £6k from a book is a rounding error. It's play. In practical terms it's completed divorced from FIRE, let alone FatFIRE. Secondary income streams, investment strategies, budgets, etc. It's all play and infotainment when you have already have a high income. The whole "here's my FIRE journey where 95% of my money comes from my FAANG job" is a tired trope.

tomcam 4y ago
I disagree a little. While publishing a book is almost never a good financial decision unto itself, it can be a good way to “diversify“ by adding to your professional reputation if you lose your FAANG job. Should OP get laid off and is later being evaluated with roughly similar rivals in the job market, having the book authorship as a tiebreaker is probably a good thing.
- bdcravens 4y ago
  Ditto for speaking at conferences, contributing to open source, etc. However the author is talking about building additional income streams, not firming up the foundation for a single primary one.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    Put another way, building a "brand" is often a good investment (and can be interesting) as a way to build on an existing income stream but it doesn't easily/reliably translate into a lucrative career as an independent consultant.
XargonEnder 4y ago
6k is what the book brought in but the author has only been paid 1.5k. And given that the author paid his friends to review it, this project seems like it's pretty close to netting zero.
- chii 4y ago
  But you gotta start small. The hope is that one could continue to do this side hustle, until such times as this hustle gets enough income to allow one to comfortably quit the FAANG job without worry. Of course, not many succeed in this endeavour - it has to be the case, otherwise, nobody would be working at FAANGs today! However, it's not worthless to try.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    >But you gotta start small. You could say that of any number of side hustles that are <1% likely to approach $350K/year. Write a book or don't write a book. I've done a few and it's been a good, if not especially directly profitable, experience (at least in retrospect). I can make more money in sometimes ghostwriting content marketing content (~$1K/day). As with many things, you basically need to know people to get that sort of work--though that's often true of going through a publisher as well.
    - southernplaces7 4y ago
      How do you find gigs in which you're paid 1k per day to ghostwrite marketing content? I've worked in this space and that seems unusually high. Honestly curious.
- lancesells 4y ago
  > And given that the author paid his friends to review it Didn't read the article but these don't sound like friends.
  - XargonEnder 4y ago
    I should clarify that the author said he had technical people he knew review it during the production phase. He was not talking about paying money to get positive reviews on the Amazon or that sort of thing.
radley 4y ago
> £6k from a book is a rounding error. It's play. Or it's the beginning.
- ZephyrBlu 4y ago
  For some people, yes. Daniel Vassallo and Gergely Orosz are two people who I respect that started with a similar thing and have now turned writing/products into their full time job. However, it feels like OP is just visiting. A lot of talk about "I could do this next" and a focus on FatFIRE. Daniel and Gergely just went all in and created a lot of high quality content.
- bdcravens 4y ago
  Yes, to potentially 2k a year in passive income: "I am hopeful that in a couple of months this might lead to a passive income of $100-$200 per month for a while." And the author acknowledges it may come to an end: "...perhaps some of the technologies mentioned will update substantially and my book will no longer be up to date" Also the author doesn't see the money, but only their royalty (after the initial advance is covered, which it hasn't yet)
koonsolo 4y ago
You forget that this is £6k for the first 90 days. Let's be conservative and you can get 7k/year out of this book (author says it's more or less evergreen). Comparing it to an investment that gives a 7% return, that means it's comparable to about 100k invested.
- ZephyrBlu 4y ago
  What? That estimate is the opposite of conservative, it's outrageously optimistic. In all likelihood, £6k is >50% of lifetime earnings. Just check out Daniel Vassallo, who has a large audience and also wrote an "evergreen" book on AWS. His book made $80k in its first 90 days out of a total $140k earnings. https://twitter.com/dvassallo/status/1563280049373331456 https://twitter.com/dvassallo/status/1563280049373331456 Selling an info product is also not at all like an investment. It's not even recurring revenue. Consistent product sales tend to rely on a lot of factors including continuous spend on marketing/ads. If you offered me the revenue from this book or £100k, I'm taking £100k every time.
- bearmode 4y ago
  You forget that the £6k is total sales, he's made about 1/6 of that. I think 7k/year is extraordinarily optimistic based on the sales he's seen so far
- bdcravens 4y ago
  > it's comparable to about 100k invested When investing you typically can retrieve your original investment at any time. > £6k for the first 90 days > Let's be conservative and you can get 7k/year out of this book Keep in mind the author doesn't make that money, but rather, is paid a royalty. The author said they've earned more like $1100, and they expect around 1-2k a year, not 7k: "I am hopeful that in a couple of months this might lead to a passive income of $100-$200 per month for a while." > author says it's more or less evergreen No, they acknowledge the book likely has a shelf life: "...with all things in the tech world I imagine someone will write a newer book on the same topic in the not so distant future or perhaps some of the technologies mentioned will update substantially and my book will no longer be up to date"
nunez 4y ago
real estate isn't too different though. one property can be yielding $3k/mo, which isn't a lot, until you have ten of them... same deal. if OP churns out ten books, and they all cash-flow similarly, that's £60k/mo! THAT is what FATfire means. (in OPs case, since their take rate is 15% or so, this will be £9k/mo, which isn't FAT, but it's still a lot of money to make while reading Hacker News!)
- ghaff 4y ago
  You're probably talking quite a few years of on-the-side work to churn out ten books. And, depending upon the type of book, they may only have a shelf-life of 2-3 years. Also, they're talking about taking home maybe $100-$200/month (which has been about my experience for a tech-related book). $1K/month, to say nothing of $6K/month, to say nothing of this holding up over a period of years, would be very good for a technical book.

tomcam 4y ago

I disagree a little. While publishing a book is almost never a good financial decision unto itself, it can be a good way to “diversify“ by adding to your professional reputation if you lose your FAANG job. Should OP get laid off and is later being evaluated with roughly similar rivals in the job market, having the book authorship as a tiebreaker is probably a good thing.

bdcravens 4y ago
Ditto for speaking at conferences, contributing to open source, etc. However the author is talking about building additional income streams, not firming up the foundation for a single primary one.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Put another way, building a "brand" is often a good investment (and can be interesting) as a way to build on an existing income stream but it doesn't easily/reliably translate into a lucrative career as an independent consultant.

XargonEnder 4y ago

6k is what the book brought in but the author has only been paid 1.5k. And given that the author paid his friends to review it, this project seems like it's pretty close to netting zero.

chii 4y ago
But you gotta start small. The hope is that one could continue to do this side hustle, until such times as this hustle gets enough income to allow one to comfortably quit the FAANG job without worry. Of course, not many succeed in this endeavour - it has to be the case, otherwise, nobody would be working at FAANGs today! However, it's not worthless to try.
- ghaff 4y ago
  >But you gotta start small. You could say that of any number of side hustles that are <1% likely to approach $350K/year. Write a book or don't write a book. I've done a few and it's been a good, if not especially directly profitable, experience (at least in retrospect). I can make more money in sometimes ghostwriting content marketing content (~$1K/day). As with many things, you basically need to know people to get that sort of work--though that's often true of going through a publisher as well.
  - southernplaces7 4y ago
    How do you find gigs in which you're paid 1k per day to ghostwrite marketing content? I've worked in this space and that seems unusually high. Honestly curious.
lancesells 4y ago
> And given that the author paid his friends to review it Didn't read the article but these don't sound like friends.
- XargonEnder 4y ago
  I should clarify that the author said he had technical people he knew review it during the production phase. He was not talking about paying money to get positive reviews on the Amazon or that sort of thing.

radley 4y ago

> £6k from a book is a rounding error. It's play. Or it's the beginning.

ZephyrBlu 4y ago
For some people, yes. Daniel Vassallo and Gergely Orosz are two people who I respect that started with a similar thing and have now turned writing/products into their full time job. However, it feels like OP is just visiting. A lot of talk about "I could do this next" and a focus on FatFIRE. Daniel and Gergely just went all in and created a lot of high quality content.
bdcravens 4y ago
Yes, to potentially 2k a year in passive income: "I am hopeful that in a couple of months this might lead to a passive income of $100-$200 per month for a while." And the author acknowledges it may come to an end: "...perhaps some of the technologies mentioned will update substantially and my book will no longer be up to date" Also the author doesn't see the money, but only their royalty (after the initial advance is covered, which it hasn't yet)

koonsolo 4y ago

You forget that this is £6k for the first 90 days. Let's be conservative and you can get 7k/year out of this book (author says it's more or less evergreen). Comparing it to an investment that gives a 7% return, that means it's comparable to about 100k invested.

ZephyrBlu 4y ago
What? That estimate is the opposite of conservative, it's outrageously optimistic. In all likelihood, £6k is >50% of lifetime earnings. Just check out Daniel Vassallo, who has a large audience and also wrote an "evergreen" book on AWS. His book made $80k in its first 90 days out of a total $140k earnings. https://twitter.com/dvassallo/status/1563280049373331456 https://twitter.com/dvassallo/status/1563280049373331456 Selling an info product is also not at all like an investment. It's not even recurring revenue. Consistent product sales tend to rely on a lot of factors including continuous spend on marketing/ads. If you offered me the revenue from this book or £100k, I'm taking £100k every time.
bearmode 4y ago
You forget that the £6k is total sales, he's made about 1/6 of that. I think 7k/year is extraordinarily optimistic based on the sales he's seen so far
bdcravens 4y ago
> it's comparable to about 100k invested When investing you typically can retrieve your original investment at any time. > £6k for the first 90 days > Let's be conservative and you can get 7k/year out of this book Keep in mind the author doesn't make that money, but rather, is paid a royalty. The author said they've earned more like $1100, and they expect around 1-2k a year, not 7k: "I am hopeful that in a couple of months this might lead to a passive income of $100-$200 per month for a while." > author says it's more or less evergreen No, they acknowledge the book likely has a shelf life: "...with all things in the tech world I imagine someone will write a newer book on the same topic in the not so distant future or perhaps some of the technologies mentioned will update substantially and my book will no longer be up to date"

nunez 4y ago

real estate isn't too different though. one property can be yielding $3k/mo, which isn't a lot, until you have ten of them... same deal. if OP churns out ten books, and they all cash-flow similarly, that's £60k/mo! THAT is what FATfire means. (in OPs case, since their take rate is 15% or so, this will be £9k/mo, which isn't FAT, but it's still a lot of money to make while reading Hacker News!)

ghaff 4y ago
You're probably talking quite a few years of on-the-side work to churn out ten books. And, depending upon the type of book, they may only have a shelf-life of 2-3 years. Also, they're talking about taking home maybe $100-$200/month (which has been about my experience for a tech-related book). $1K/month, to say nothing of $6K/month, to say nothing of this holding up over a period of years, would be very good for a technical book.