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.
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...
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.
What weight training do you do?
Good luck with your recovery!
My book: https://www.discoverphaser.com/ My sales number: http://blog.lessmilk.com/ebook-sales/
question. I see you use Gumroad. Reasons not to go with Clickbank? No need for affiliates?
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-r...
Also, http://www.thepassivevoice.com is a tremendous resource for an overview and navigation of the disruption.
I wrote up 12 things i learned from my first book here: 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.
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.
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.