Hacker News Reader

Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

My anecdote is that I sold a somewhat technical book through one of the big publishers, then got a second edition, earned out my advances but basically earned beer money. I'm guessing that's not unusual. (Was still great as a career move but made very little direct money.)

View on HN

I suspect that certain classes of books (technical books being one of them) have much more predictable markets (and so if you polled tech writers, you'd find many who earn out their advance but not much beyond).

Yeah, and I suspect at least a modest amount of my earnings came about because I got organizations I knew to organize book signings that they purchased books for.

One advantage of self-publishing (even on Amazon where you can order "author's copies" - https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G7BBN68RYX5UMDZF ) is that you can get the "whole enchilada" if you do the footwork at conventions, speaking slots, etc.

And anyone who is already doing those kinds of things, should consider writing a book to go along with it, even if self-published. The sales can add up over time.

Having a "real" publisher still carries a lot of cred whether it should or not.

Another anecdote - I sold a technical book through one of the big publishers, never heard back post advances, and found out that the international edition wasn't considered to be part of my royalty agreement. This was bad for my coauthors and I as the international edition became part of the curriculum for several universities for several years.

Live and learn.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com