4 ms·

Do we need to depend on Publishers? Can’t we write books independently? Or is it because of the “Brand” and other perks that come with Publishers?

elric 1y ago
Self publishing is easier than ever. But even shitty publishers like Packt still have a huge networking/marketing machine. My skillset does not include marketing, or checking whether a target audience exists. If I want to write for just myself, I can just journal or blog. A book is a significant undertaking, writing one which no one reads would just be depressing.
- tough 1y ago
  someone should build a cooperative/self serve after stripe press books
  - Kon-Peki 1y ago
    Cooperative/self-serve? What does that mean?
    - tough 1y ago
      yeah idk but something like curation is done by commitee (to try and maintain a minimum of quality overall) but as an author is super easy to appply/get editors/feedback/publish (that’d be the self-serve part i guess) tbh hardest is still marketing. good books are not only text but also covers and the like
      - sobadically 1y ago
        So basically a business, where day to day is run by people focused on the day to day and everyone else can pick and choose to use their stuff with low friction, not having to focus on the day to day The hardest part still being networking into others lives to distribute the message You just re-invented our economy
      - christhekeele 1y ago
        > yeah idk but something like curation is done by commitee (to try and maintain a minimum of quality overall) but as an author is super easy to appply/get editors/feedback/publish This is very much what pragprog.com is meant to be. I'm only on the volunteer curation committee so have less insight into the feedback cycle for authors post-acceptance, but every author who's published on the platform I've talked to has been pretty positive about the experience. The OP didn't go into nearly as many (indeed, any) details as to why their second publishing attempt with them in particular did not work out, I'd be curious to learn more.
        tough 1y ago
        Yeah Pragmatic Programmers seems one of the best publishers on our industry
  - connicpu 1y ago
    The problem with marketing just anything is that if you market too many things that people don't actually want, your brand starts to lose its power as people stop trusting that what you're advertising is something they might want.
    - tough 1y ago
      Indeed curation remains the important function of any publication/brand/company the gist of the idea: > yeah idk but something like curation is done by commitee (to try and maintain a minimum of quality overall)
spelunker 1y ago
I mean in the blog post the author literally open sourced and then self-published his book after being dropped by multiple publishers for taking too long.
drob518 1y ago
Publishers add the following: 1. marketing and reach 2. financial risk on paper copies 3. Production services (e.g. editing and artwork) If you don’t need those or can get them some other way (e.g. hire an independent editor), then you are better off self publishing and not giving the publisher a cut.
- munificent 1y ago
  > 1. marketing and reach In theory, yes, but they have less expertise than you might imagine. For technical writing, keep in mind that editors at publishing companies aren't actually tech people. They may have been at one point, years ago, but they don't really know what matters to programmers today in that way that an active working engineer does. > 2. financial risk on paper copies That was much more of a thing before print-on-demand. You don't have to take the risk of a several thousand copy offset press run anymore. There is maybe an argument that offset printing is higher quality, but I have textbooks from major academic publishers whose print quality is clearly worse than the POD stuff I get from Amazon for my book. > 3. Production services (e.g. editing and artwork) This is absolutely critical, agreed. Though they are often contracting out for this and if you're comfortable finding and vetting freelancers yourself, then they don't add a ton of value.
dangoor 1y ago
I don't know if publishers manage to get better deals from Amazon, but Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing has an annoying aspect that the ebook royalty rate falls from 70% to 30% after $9.99, which gets very awkward for a tech book you'd like to sell for, say, $19.99. Also, piracy is rampant and Amazon doesn't do much about it. Publishers have more resources to stay on top of it, I suspect.
crystal_revenge 1y ago
Personally my favorite part of working with real publishers is editors. Having a development editor, technical editor, and a team of copy editors really helps making sure the book comes out polished. Additionally, I don't want to deal with all the layout work and the details of printing. And, depending on the book, yes the distributor the publisher has can be very helpful for sales. It's nice to be able to grab your book off the shelf at Barnes and Noble (and, does lend a bit more credibility to your work). All that said, if you're writing for purely economic reasons (which I would caution against regardless), you're probably going to make roughly the same if you self-publish for a small audience vs go with a traditional publisher for a larger audience, and if you can get a larger audience self-publishing then there will be no comparison.

elric 1y ago

Self publishing is easier than ever. But even shitty publishers like Packt still have a huge networking/marketing machine. My skillset does not include marketing, or checking whether a target audience exists. If I want to write for just myself, I can just journal or blog. A book is a significant undertaking, writing one which no one reads would just be depressing.

tough 1y ago
someone should build a cooperative/self serve after stripe press books
- Kon-Peki 1y ago
  Cooperative/self-serve? What does that mean?
  - tough 1y ago
    yeah idk but something like curation is done by commitee (to try and maintain a minimum of quality overall) but as an author is super easy to appply/get editors/feedback/publish (that’d be the self-serve part i guess) tbh hardest is still marketing. good books are not only text but also covers and the like
    - sobadically 1y ago
      So basically a business, where day to day is run by people focused on the day to day and everyone else can pick and choose to use their stuff with low friction, not having to focus on the day to day The hardest part still being networking into others lives to distribute the message You just re-invented our economy
    - christhekeele 1y ago
      > yeah idk but something like curation is done by commitee (to try and maintain a minimum of quality overall) but as an author is super easy to appply/get editors/feedback/publish This is very much what pragprog.com is meant to be. I'm only on the volunteer curation committee so have less insight into the feedback cycle for authors post-acceptance, but every author who's published on the platform I've talked to has been pretty positive about the experience. The OP didn't go into nearly as many (indeed, any) details as to why their second publishing attempt with them in particular did not work out, I'd be curious to learn more.
      - tough 1y ago
        Yeah Pragmatic Programmers seems one of the best publishers on our industry
- connicpu 1y ago
  The problem with marketing just anything is that if you market too many things that people don't actually want, your brand starts to lose its power as people stop trusting that what you're advertising is something they might want.
  - tough 1y ago
    Indeed curation remains the important function of any publication/brand/company the gist of the idea: > yeah idk but something like curation is done by commitee (to try and maintain a minimum of quality overall)

spelunker 1y ago

I mean in the blog post the author literally open sourced and then self-published his book after being dropped by multiple publishers for taking too long.

drob518 1y ago

Publishers add the following: 1. marketing and reach 2. financial risk on paper copies 3. Production services (e.g. editing and artwork) If you don’t need those or can get them some other way (e.g. hire an independent editor), then you are better off self publishing and not giving the publisher a cut.

munificent 1y ago
> 1. marketing and reach In theory, yes, but they have less expertise than you might imagine. For technical writing, keep in mind that editors at publishing companies aren't actually tech people. They may have been at one point, years ago, but they don't really know what matters to programmers today in that way that an active working engineer does. > 2. financial risk on paper copies That was much more of a thing before print-on-demand. You don't have to take the risk of a several thousand copy offset press run anymore. There is maybe an argument that offset printing is higher quality, but I have textbooks from major academic publishers whose print quality is clearly worse than the POD stuff I get from Amazon for my book. > 3. Production services (e.g. editing and artwork) This is absolutely critical, agreed. Though they are often contracting out for this and if you're comfortable finding and vetting freelancers yourself, then they don't add a ton of value.

dangoor 1y ago

I don't know if publishers manage to get better deals from Amazon, but Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing has an annoying aspect that the ebook royalty rate falls from 70% to 30% after $9.99, which gets very awkward for a tech book you'd like to sell for, say, $19.99. Also, piracy is rampant and Amazon doesn't do much about it. Publishers have more resources to stay on top of it, I suspect.

crystal_revenge 1y ago

Personally my favorite part of working with real publishers is editors. Having a development editor, technical editor, and a team of copy editors really helps making sure the book comes out polished. Additionally, I don't want to deal with all the layout work and the details of printing. And, depending on the book, yes the distributor the publisher has can be very helpful for sales. It's nice to be able to grab your book off the shelf at Barnes and Noble (and, does lend a bit more credibility to your work). All that said, if you're writing for purely economic reasons (which I would caution against regardless), you're probably going to make roughly the same if you self-publish for a small audience vs go with a traditional publisher for a larger audience, and if you can get a larger audience self-publishing then there will be no comparison.