You too can write a book

I agree. I DID write a book! https://howtoopensource.dev/

My biggest tip is this: Don’t skip getting beta readers. High quality feedback is really hard to come by. I changed my tool chain to add a google form at the end of each chapter and got strong buy in from a handful of people with the finished first draft in a beta state. In the end some bailed but one left amazing feedback resulting in massive structural changes.

The process of writing a book is two things (to me). The most obvious is sharing information. The second, often overlooked, but biggest benefit IMHO is how you will grow and learn the source material even better than you already do. Even if you don’t ever publish it, it’s still worthwhile to putting in the effort to write a book. GLHF.

For beta ebook publishing I can't help but recommend my friends at https://leanpub.com where my latest book is currently at the top of the charts.

I've been publishing with them since they launched (a long time ago) and have made nearly six figures lifetime revenue. Plus they give you one-button push to publish to print versions at Amazon.

The challenge is not writing a book, but letting it go.

I wrote Understanding SEO https://fullstackoptimizatio.gumroad.com/l/understanding-seo...

4 times. Each time it took me a year. The last time together with an editor. And I could have gone on, over every word, every sentence again. In the end my editor forces me. In the end you just have to publish it, otherwise it does not exist.

Still think I did good, even after more than 7 years I still sell a few paper and some more e copies per month just by WOM, so yeah, must be some value in there.

The blog post should more accurately be titled “You too can write a textbook”

The main counter-argument to this I have read is "you should just publish blog posts instead." This is, among other reasons, because

- The bar to releasing the first thing to the public is lower,

- The regular cadence builds an organic following,

- You can iterate on subjects in the open,

- You have more freedom to organise content non-linearly.

The main drawback I can think of is you cannot call yourself "author of book X". Are there any other reasons not to blog instead of book?

Write a book! +1 you all can do it

Here are some of my tips from when I wrote Debugging Your Brain.

How I developed my ideas for the book (discussions, conference talks) https://www.caseywatts.com/blog/casey-s-writing-process/

How I got feedback from beta readers https://docs.google.com/document/d/13EwX8L6RCUbiu86Lik1xZ8eX...

How I wrote and typeset my book from markdown to an eBook and print book, via pandoc/latex https://gist.github.com/caseywatts/3d8150fe04e0d8462cfc4d51b...

I usually participates in question/answer communities to answer things, I almost never ask my own questions.

As a result, I have various sources of notes I've figured out and get high use/reuse from.

I also do a lot of technical training at work, for both beginners and advanced users, so have a wealth of tried and tested content there.

I've often contemplated writing an eBook on each topic and selling them on Leanpub/Amazon/Google for 5 or 10 bucks each.

The idea of limiting myself to 6 pages per topic is appealing. That would force an economy of writing and density of content which appeals to me.

As a university lecturer, I have interviewed many people… academics and admins. I have taught in many S E Asian universities and multi-lingualism is the norm, with English assumed to be the ‘Lingua franca’. Almost everyone I interview claims to have ‘excellent’ skills in written and spoken English. Almost none of them could produce so much as a single paragraph of English that did not burn my eyes.

Prior to starting writing my first book, I had already accumulated some experience in academic writing. I thought it would be a doddle. I can honestly say that it was one of the most demanding experiences of my life.

The worst thing is the degree to which I was blind to my own shortcomings… just like all those people I interviewed.

Moral of the story… "writing is easy; you just stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead" (Gene Fowler).

Gwern recently wrote an article on why not to write a book: https://gwern.net/book-writing

You can write a book, but odds are it won't be good or get traction. I think you're better off with video. Videos can remain indexed and accumulate traffic on youtube for years, whereas most books are forgotten/ignored. I have seen plenty of videos from 10+ years ago that still gets lots of comments and traffic.

What I remember from college is that the instructors who wrote their own books had terrible books.

They used their own books because it was theirs, not because it was good.

Most people do not write well, but the people who can become a standard textbook do. The vast majority of people write worse than this. Usually much worse.

I agree with the post :)

Writing a book was very personally fulfilling.

I wrote about my self published book earnings a couple years ago.

https://on-systems.tech/blog/130-2022-self-published-book-ea...

This quote got me pretty excited, and I since yesterday I started sketching out some ideas for other books ;p

"First, simply: you believe strongly in your view of the world, and you’re pursuing it with intensity. Right now nobody else is really able to download your brain. Your book becomes how others can download it."

I'm in the process of writing a book, Beginning CI/CD, primarily because I have a strange way of learning things, and hoping others might find my teaching style useful. I also struggled with CI/CD and still have those struggles fresh in my mind.

While the author of the article is against commercial publishers, I don't think I'll have the same impact if I were to go with the self-publishing route. Either way it's super unlikely I'll make a profit so it might be better to use it as leverage; also, getting a publisher to publish it shows that there is at least some commercial viability.

Looking for beta readers--if interested, feel free to reply or email me (email on profile.)

Great article, but on Mobile Safari, at least on an IPhone 12 Mini (old, I know, but not that old) this loads with a massive left margin / padding, with all the text overflowing the right side of the screen.

I started writing a book along side of every video course I make. (I make educational software videos, and discovered that some really enjoy the written version apposed to video - even for software!)

I just use LaTeX with some fancy packages:

https://github.com/princefishthrower/dev-book-template

I too think there can always be more long format literature out there, in a world seemingly dominated by short articles and tweets

I feel there is not enough Satire IT book. Someone ought to take the shit, and by that I mean realistically picture the industry.

As an author of free online books and POD books, I wholeheartedly second everything in this post.

Leunig cartoon on your "inner book"

https://scontent.fmel18-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/461606...

It's very inspiring indeed

Is it intentionally ironic that there's a grammar mistake in the second sentence of the article?

Oh hey, this person! The 'Books as software' post has made the rounds on here a few times since its publication in 2006, if I recall correctly, and it's always a controversial+fascinating conversation. They're certainly not a conventional soul:

  We will include mistakes, not because I don’t know the answer, but because this is the best way for you to learn. Including mistakes makes it impossible for you to read passively: you must instead engage with the material, because you can never be sure of the veracity of what you’re reading.

I. As another comment mentions, this is for technical books, and seemingly specifically textbooks (AKA lessons, as opposed to the other three quadrants of technical documentation, references, instructions, and tutorials). In case anyone here is considering writing a fiction book, please do not ever expect to make any money at all. The odds are downright absurd these days.

II. I absolutely agree that it's a sometimes-underappreciated and potentially very lucrative career move if you have real expertise to share and are a good writer. Especially in the vaguely post-blog era.

III. Writing a book but not expecting to make any money from it is... bold. I'm very glad it worked for this person, and if you're looking to use it as a credential to land contracts or appointments, then that's very smart and kind. But I think I speak for many authors when I say that writing a book is very time consuming, and you need to eat somehow. Not all of us are just publishing cleaned-up lecture notes, after all.

I initially shared this person's "offer a print copy as a tip jar" concept, but have gradually moved towards "only publish free snippets" as I consider long term financial feasibility. This applies even more so if, like me, you're writing a prose book that has a 1% chance to be truly popular among laypeople, rather than more realistic textbook-centric goals.

IV. PoD is indeed incredible. For those not in the know, this allows you to sell your book without any significant upfront investment, and have them manage shipping. There's definitely room for profit via many sites; Lulu, for example, will print a 250 page "Digest" (normal) paperback in B&W for $7.56/ea.

I'm also planning on going with http://lulu.com . Arguably it's <50% likely to beat Amazon's uber-popular PoD service on overall sales+profits, but it has some notable advantages:

1. If you're thinking about a publishing a "premium" book, which some textbooks might be, they have some gorgeous options -- both in terms of color printing and cover material. https://www.lulu.com/pricing

2. If you're a web-dev comfortable setting up a Shopify portal on your own site, you can hook it up to Lulu and get "100%" (after PoD costs) of your profit. Obviously, this is potentially a huge deal -- the trick is of course getting Amazon-like numbers of eyeballs on your own site. https://www.lulu.com/sell/sell-on-your-site You can even order copies via API, which seems goofy but potentially fun.

3. They're targeted at DIY authors, and as such offer a nice little knowledge base on formatting and such: https://www.lulu.com/publishing-toolkit I haven't printed any yet, but they're templates are nice to work with.

4. They're not only "not Amazon", they're a B-Corp. Which, hey, we all gotta do what we can when we can, no matter how small.

...I swear I'm just a biased fanboy, not a shill!

V. The cover art space is fucking wild these days, AI has absolutely upended it. Scroll through /r/writers for lots of horror stories. I would be cautious about hiring any freelancers to help you without serious vetting. Plus, Inkscape is free and technical books don't need realistic art!

P.S. Does the author know they're invoking a antisemitic trope with the "(((Parenthetically Speaking)))" title? It seems to be in obvious good faith, but that did draw my attention for a short moment. Maybe just one set of parentheses could do the trick ;)

But why should i? Many excellent books covering every aspect vave been written. Time's better spend elsewhere.

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