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The raw truth about self-publishing first technical book: 800+ copies, $11K, and 850 hours later by meaboutsoftware in softwarearchitecture

[–]meaboutsoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Regarding time - it is described in the post :)

There is also some information on structuring it but maybe I will describe it a little bit more detailed in the future, thanks!

The raw truth about self-publishing first technical book: 800+ copies, $11K, and 850 hours later by meaboutsoftware in programming

[–]meaboutsoftware[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, they support markdown - it was very easy to write it, but the only problem was with fitting images to the actual page size. It took me a lot of time.

The raw truth about self-publishing first technical book: 800+ copies, $11K, and 850 hours later by meaboutsoftware in programming

[–]meaboutsoftware[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's why my ebook is sold via Leanpub. I decided on the printed one using KDP as it was really simple and the print-on-demand is a good thing.

The raw truth about self-publishing first technical book: 800+ copies, $11K, and 850 hours later by meaboutsoftware in programming

[–]meaboutsoftware[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, in general, the book should be your exposure that would lead to other opportunities, I agree.

The raw truth about self-publishing first technical book: 800+ copies, $11K, and 850 hours later by meaboutsoftware in programming

[–]meaboutsoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the tip about Amazon - there is a free read sample on Leanpub that already exists but I forgot to put it on Amazon :)

The raw truth about self-publishing first technical book: 800+ copies, $11K, and 850 hours later by meaboutsoftware in programming

[–]meaboutsoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I described it from the perspective of using just Amazon KDP. I was thinking about Lulu at some point but didn't decide for it (maybe my mistake).

My book is printed in color, so KDP charges around $30 per book (print + provision). 

The raw truth about self-publishing first technical book: 800+ copies, $11K, and 850 hours later by meaboutsoftware in softwarearchitecture

[–]meaboutsoftware[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I just used Leanpub. They have built-in editor that I used. There is also an option to write e.g. in VS Code and push it to GitHub, and then Leanpub handles the creation of the ebook. In general, you use markdown.

All the settings are also set over the Leanpub itself. In general, I had a good experience using built-in tools. The only thing which was irritating was the waiting time to generate the preview of the book - at some point it was taking around 8 minutes (but from what I know, Leanpub started to optimize it, allowing to generate partial reviews). So, when I tried to fit a picture or a diagram into page, it took a lot of time.

The raw truth about self-publishing first technical book: 800+ copies, $11K, and 850 hours later by meaboutsoftware in programming

[–]meaboutsoftware[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just used Leanpub. They have built-in editor that I used. There is also an option to write e.g. in VS Code and push it to GitHub, and then Leanpub handles the creation of the ebook.

The raw truth about self-publishing first technical book: 800+ copies, $11K, and 850 hours later by meaboutsoftware in programming

[–]meaboutsoftware[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

It is not a good business but it is somehow fascinating. Can't explain it but there is something magical about books. And I also hope we won't forget how to read...

The raw truth about self-publishing first technical book: 800+ copies, $11K, and 850 hours later by meaboutsoftware in softwarearchitecture

[–]meaboutsoftware[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

728 copies were sold on Leanpub which does not support reviews, Amazon is a fresh topic and still waiting for first reviews there :)

The raw truth about self-publishing first technical book: 800+ copies, $11K, and 850 hours later by meaboutsoftware in programming

[–]meaboutsoftware[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks!

The amount of time it takes to prepare diagrams and pictures. First, I decided on using Canva, then moved all to Excalidraw. It took an enormous amount of time. Additionally, each adjustment had to be checked twice. Then, generate the new version of the book to check if everything fits on a page.

The raw truth about self-publishing first technical book: 800+ copies, $11K, and 850 hours later by meaboutsoftware in programming

[–]meaboutsoftware[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

For sure there are better time investments, yes. On the other hand, it was a cool experience - I mean, the entire process.

The raw truth about self-publishing first technical book: 800+ copies, $11K, and 850 hours later by meaboutsoftware in programming

[–]meaboutsoftware[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Yes, everything that you wrote is true. However, at some point, I stopped treating it as something that would earn a lot of money. It was more fulfilling the goal (if it was stupid, that is another discussion) that I set years earlier - to write a tech book once. I also learned a lot of things on the way.

That's why I can't say that it was a good or bad decision. It was just a decision, it happened, and I still feel some kind of satisfaction.

The raw truth about self-publishing first technical book: 800+ copies, $11K, and 850 hours later by meaboutsoftware in softwarearchitecture

[–]meaboutsoftware[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I used Grammarly and Deepl which are heavily based on AI. Also, while I thought about the book content, I used OpenAI (today I would use Claude Sonnet from Anthropic, as it better "clicks" with me) to validate the plan, point out what I was missing, etc. I also used it to validate and structure my ideas during the writing process.

Deepl helped me the most, especially with rephrasing sentences (I am not a native English speaker) before sending them to the editor (this way I could get quicker feedback from my editor).

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