4 ms·

Ask HN: If you have written and sold Ebooks, please share

27 points by codegeek 12y ago

Please share your stories of your Ebooks, how you wrote them (or in the process), marketing, sales numbers (if you desire to disclose) etc. Also, the inspiration behind it. The ebooks can be of any genre and not just tech specific.

octopus 12y ago
Nathan Barry http://nathanbarry.com/ http://nathanbarry.com/ writes on his websites about writing and self publishing.
alanorourke 12y ago
I have written two books so far and have a third outlined. They are marketing ideas and how-to books. I made a few thousand euro from them so far(They still sell) but perhaps more importantly they helped open a few awesome doors for a me a couple of months ago when I was looking for a job. I ended up with some great job offers. I wrote up 12 things i learned from my first book here: http://beautiful-email-newsletters.com/books/12-things-i-learnt-from-publishing-my-first-book/ http://beautiful-email-newsletters.com/books/12-things-i-lea... For my second book the learning was about making time to aggressively market the book and having a plan in place. I found after the hard work of writing the book I did not have the energy to do the marketing straight away. I should have taken a break before launching.
rachelandrew 12y ago
I've written for traditional publishers for a number of years but earlier this year I self-published an ebook - The Profitable Side Project Handbook: http://rachelandrew.co.uk/books/the-profitable-side-project http://rachelandrew.co.uk/books/the-profitable-side-project It's earned over 10K USD at the current time, more than most of the books I wrote for publishers, where I would be lucky to get 50 cents per copy sold. I wrote the book using Scrivener, and then exported to HTML from which I created the other digital versions. I wrote about that process here http://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2014/01/07/html-epub-mobi-pdf-wtf-creating-an-ebook/ http://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2014/01/07/html-epub-mobi... I'm currently writing a second edition of a book I originally published through an independent publisher, but I'm publishing the second edition myself.
- gadders 12y ago
  Slightly offtopic: "I take photographs; can dress-make, cook, read Latin and lift heavy stuff, although not all at once." What weight training do you do?
  - rachelandrew 12y ago
    Not as much as I did because I shattered my elbow joint 18 months ago, and it's still pretty wrecked. Getting back into it but with limited range of movement I run into stuff I can't do all the time. Have had to learn to love the machines at the gym to work on lower body strength!
    - gadders 12y ago
      Nooooooooooo - not machines! :-) Good luck with your recovery!
lessmilk 12y ago
I wrote an ebook on how to make HTML5 games with the Phaser framework. It's been pretty successful, making me over $12,000 on launch day. My book: https://www.discoverphaser.com/ https://www.discoverphaser.com/ My sales number: http://blog.lessmilk.com/ebook-sales/ http://blog.lessmilk.com/ebook-sales/
- trienthusiast 12y ago
  nice book idea! If I had any time on top of job, side project and family i'd buy it! question. I see you use Gumroad. Reasons not to go with Clickbank? No need for affiliates?
interintel 12y ago
After my 10 year old daughter came to me and told me that one of her goals was to learn how to program a computer, being a Computer Scientist, I was very happy to hear my child wanting to learn some of the things I knew, and I immediately started to look for something that would help her begin the process of computer programming. After an initial search, I could not find anything that seemed appropriate, and probably more importantly, would keep the interest of a 10 year old. So I wrote my own: C# Programming for Kids and VB.Net Programming for Kids. Both are available from Lulu.com and other places like Amazon.
kulachilli 12y ago
I co-authored a book called How to Make Money in Open Face Chinese Poker: http://www.amazon.com/Make-Money-Open-Chinese-Poker-ebook/dp/B00JXOM7Y6 http://www.amazon.com/Make-Money-Open-Chinese-Poker-ebook/dp... The book took around a year to write and edit, and it was published in mid April. Marketing is primarily relying on the fact there's no other books in the same niche so it would show up mostly within first page when people search it. The book is not yet profitable. Something I would do differently next time is that I would try to publish the book myself rather than using a 3rd party service like BookBaby. I couldn't control when to put a discount. Sales data are like two, three months behind. Now is mid August, and I only see sales data up to end of of May. Also I couldn't participate in programs like Amazon KDP Select.
miniverse 12y ago
I've self-published 26 ebooks in the last three years. It's a great time to be an author. I hire a formatter, editors, and cover designers and we work as a team to create the books. I've also published 11 books in print. I use Create Space for print on demand paperbacks. Very happy with the quality and process. Here are two sites I highly recommend: To get powerful insight into ebook sales and the disruption of the publishing industry, be sure to visit http://authorearnings.com/report/july-2014-author-earnings-report/ http://authorearnings.com/report/july-2014-author-earnings-r... Also, http://www.thepassivevoice.com http://www.thepassivevoice.com is a tremendous resource for an overview and navigation of the disruption.
stevejalim 12y ago
I published http://leanpub.com/freelancedeveloperbook http://leanpub.com/freelancedeveloperbook via, well, Leanpub. It started as an itch to scratch: I was being asked the same or very similar questions again and again by friends and colleagues, so I decided to package it up. Wrote it all in Markdown. Tried Scrivener, but didn't get on with it, so went with my code editor. Writing took longer than expected, because it was done in the time around helping with my then-newborn daughter, so it's tricky to tally up how much time I actually spent on it. I'm a former journalist and editor, like my wife, so shaping and refining the manuscript was straightforward, with her second set of eyes proving invaluable. However, useful advice for anyone, regardless of experience, is: set a limit on the number of drafts/reads/edits you do. When you hit it, publish, rather that get trapped in Edit Valley. (And with self-publishing, it's easy to push out updates, after all - particularly with Leanpub). I've actually done very little marketing for it. Google Adwords didn't prove cost-effective for me, so sales have mainly come via word of mouth/blog posts, HN, Reddit and the like. FWIW, in the first two months, I made more from the book than the advance was on some print, publishing-house books I was asked to write when I was a journalist (but I turned down). It's still ticking over fine at the moment, but (in terms of boosting sales) I should really make time to do a big revise-and-expand v2, rather than the incremental tweaks I've been doing. At the same time, I still believe it's relevant and useful as is, so I don't mind keeping my time clear for family, other projects, etc.
ConnectHappines 12y ago
I wrote connecting Happiness and Success via Kindle. Got it to #1 on 2 Amazon Best Seller lists using KDP select. Wrote it in word and paid $50 for kindle to convert it. The process was really simple and more people should try it. It has opened a lot of doors and got me a lot of press. Not a great way to make living, but definitely a good creative outlet that supports your business.

27 points by codegeek 12y ago

octopus 12y ago

Nathan Barry http://nathanbarry.com/ http://nathanbarry.com/ writes on his websites about writing and self publishing.

alanorourke 12y ago

I have written two books so far and have a third outlined. They are marketing ideas and how-to books. I made a few thousand euro from them so far(They still sell) but perhaps more importantly they helped open a few awesome doors for a me a couple of months ago when I was looking for a job. I ended up with some great job offers. I wrote up 12 things i learned from my first book here: http://beautiful-email-newsletters.com/books/12-things-i-learnt-from-publishing-my-first-book/ http://beautiful-email-newsletters.com/books/12-things-i-lea... For my second book the learning was about making time to aggressively market the book and having a plan in place. I found after the hard work of writing the book I did not have the energy to do the marketing straight away. I should have taken a break before launching.

rachelandrew 12y ago

I've written for traditional publishers for a number of years but earlier this year I self-published an ebook - The Profitable Side Project Handbook: http://rachelandrew.co.uk/books/the-profitable-side-project http://rachelandrew.co.uk/books/the-profitable-side-project It's earned over 10K USD at the current time, more than most of the books I wrote for publishers, where I would be lucky to get 50 cents per copy sold. I wrote the book using Scrivener, and then exported to HTML from which I created the other digital versions. I wrote about that process here http://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2014/01/07/html-epub-mobi-pdf-wtf-creating-an-ebook/ http://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2014/01/07/html-epub-mobi... I'm currently writing a second edition of a book I originally published through an independent publisher, but I'm publishing the second edition myself.

gadders 12y ago
Slightly offtopic: "I take photographs; can dress-make, cook, read Latin and lift heavy stuff, although not all at once." What weight training do you do?
- rachelandrew 12y ago
  Not as much as I did because I shattered my elbow joint 18 months ago, and it's still pretty wrecked. Getting back into it but with limited range of movement I run into stuff I can't do all the time. Have had to learn to love the machines at the gym to work on lower body strength!
  - gadders 12y ago
    Nooooooooooo - not machines! :-) Good luck with your recovery!

lessmilk 12y ago

I wrote an ebook on how to make HTML5 games with the Phaser framework. It's been pretty successful, making me over $12,000 on launch day. My book: https://www.discoverphaser.com/ https://www.discoverphaser.com/ My sales number: http://blog.lessmilk.com/ebook-sales/ http://blog.lessmilk.com/ebook-sales/

trienthusiast 12y ago
nice book idea! If I had any time on top of job, side project and family i'd buy it! question. I see you use Gumroad. Reasons not to go with Clickbank? No need for affiliates?

interintel 12y ago

After my 10 year old daughter came to me and told me that one of her goals was to learn how to program a computer, being a Computer Scientist, I was very happy to hear my child wanting to learn some of the things I knew, and I immediately started to look for something that would help her begin the process of computer programming. After an initial search, I could not find anything that seemed appropriate, and probably more importantly, would keep the interest of a 10 year old. So I wrote my own: C# Programming for Kids and VB.Net Programming for Kids. Both are available from Lulu.com and other places like Amazon.

kulachilli 12y ago

I co-authored a book called How to Make Money in Open Face Chinese Poker: http://www.amazon.com/Make-Money-Open-Chinese-Poker-ebook/dp/B00JXOM7Y6 http://www.amazon.com/Make-Money-Open-Chinese-Poker-ebook/dp... The book took around a year to write and edit, and it was published in mid April. Marketing is primarily relying on the fact there's no other books in the same niche so it would show up mostly within first page when people search it. The book is not yet profitable. Something I would do differently next time is that I would try to publish the book myself rather than using a 3rd party service like BookBaby. I couldn't control when to put a discount. Sales data are like two, three months behind. Now is mid August, and I only see sales data up to end of of May. Also I couldn't participate in programs like Amazon KDP Select.

miniverse 12y ago

I've self-published 26 ebooks in the last three years. It's a great time to be an author. I hire a formatter, editors, and cover designers and we work as a team to create the books. I've also published 11 books in print. I use Create Space for print on demand paperbacks. Very happy with the quality and process. Here are two sites I highly recommend: To get powerful insight into ebook sales and the disruption of the publishing industry, be sure to visit http://authorearnings.com/report/july-2014-author-earnings-report/ http://authorearnings.com/report/july-2014-author-earnings-r... Also, http://www.thepassivevoice.com http://www.thepassivevoice.com is a tremendous resource for an overview and navigation of the disruption.

stevejalim 12y ago

I published http://leanpub.com/freelancedeveloperbook http://leanpub.com/freelancedeveloperbook via, well, Leanpub. It started as an itch to scratch: I was being asked the same or very similar questions again and again by friends and colleagues, so I decided to package it up. Wrote it all in Markdown. Tried Scrivener, but didn't get on with it, so went with my code editor. Writing took longer than expected, because it was done in the time around helping with my then-newborn daughter, so it's tricky to tally up how much time I actually spent on it. I'm a former journalist and editor, like my wife, so shaping and refining the manuscript was straightforward, with her second set of eyes proving invaluable. However, useful advice for anyone, regardless of experience, is: set a limit on the number of drafts/reads/edits you do. When you hit it, publish, rather that get trapped in Edit Valley. (And with self-publishing, it's easy to push out updates, after all - particularly with Leanpub). I've actually done very little marketing for it. Google Adwords didn't prove cost-effective for me, so sales have mainly come via word of mouth/blog posts, HN, Reddit and the like. FWIW, in the first two months, I made more from the book than the advance was on some print, publishing-house books I was asked to write when I was a journalist (but I turned down). It's still ticking over fine at the moment, but (in terms of boosting sales) I should really make time to do a big revise-and-expand v2, rather than the incremental tweaks I've been doing. At the same time, I still believe it's relevant and useful as is, so I don't mind keeping my time clear for family, other projects, etc.

ConnectHappines 12y ago

I wrote connecting Happiness and Success via Kindle. Got it to #1 on 2 Amazon Best Seller lists using KDP select. Wrote it in word and paid $50 for kindle to convert it. The process was really simple and more people should try it. It has opened a lot of doors and got me a lot of press. Not a great way to make living, but definitely a good creative outlet that supports your business.