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Comment by weird_user | Hacker News Reader

While writing a book is not particularly profitable, the author could probably earn more by self-publishing rather than working with a publisher, since the author has done most of the marketing anyway.

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I think you are likely correct on this but I do think having deadlines helped me make sure I actually finished. If I was to write another I would self publish.

A good way to have deadlines is to presell the book, and promise these deadlines to people who paid. Example: buy now for 50% of the final price, two chapters already ready, and I promise one new chapter every two weeks.

I use this strategy, and I’m always amazed that people trust me enough to deliver as promised :)

Given the amount of high profile kickstarter failures (or delays), i'm surprised that people would continue to do pre-orders and such! I guess if the cost is small, it won't be a loss for the backer even if it was delayed.

I not only self publish but I print and warehouse my latest book and only sell it from my website. Still can't sell more than 2,000, but I cover my costs.

I think I made significantly more working with pragmatic bookshelf than I would have self publishing. That may be particular to pragmatic though, as they have a fairly loyal reader base.

Interesting! I wonder how big their read base is. Other commenters mentioned sales numbers around 2000, you must have made a far larger sale to compensate for the lower loyalty.

Rightly or wrongly, I find there's still a certain aura to going with an established publisher where it's justified or not. I've done both.

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