

Ask HN: If you have written and sold Ebooks, please share - codegeek

Please share your stories of your Ebooks, how you wrote them (or in the process), marketing, sales numbers (if you desire to disclose) etc. Also, the inspiration behind it. The ebooks can be of any genre and not just tech specific.
======
stevejalim
I published
[http://leanpub.com/freelancedeveloperbook](http://leanpub.com/freelancedeveloperbook)
via, well, Leanpub.

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.

------
rachelandrew
I've written for traditional publishers for a number of years but earlier this
year I self-published an ebook - The Profitable Side Project Handbook:
[http://rachelandrew.co.uk/books/the-profitable-side-
project](http://rachelandrew.co.uk/books/the-profitable-side-project)

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...](http://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2014/01/07/html-epub-mobi-pdf-wtf-
creating-an-ebook/)

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.

~~~
gadders
Slightly offtopic: "I take photographs; can dress-make, cook, read Latin and
lift heavy stuff, although not all at once."

What weight training do you do?

~~~
rachelandrew
Not as much as I did because I shattered my elbow joint 18 months ago, and
it's still pretty wrecked. Getting back into it but with limited range of
movement I run into stuff I can't do all the time. Have had to learn to love
the machines at the gym to work on lower body strength!

~~~
gadders
Nooooooooooo - not machines! :-)

Good luck with your recovery!

------
lessmilk
I wrote an ebook on how to make HTML5 games with the Phaser framework. It's
been pretty successful, making me over $12,000 on launch day.

My book: [https://www.discoverphaser.com/](https://www.discoverphaser.com/) My
sales number: [http://blog.lessmilk.com/ebook-
sales/](http://blog.lessmilk.com/ebook-sales/)

~~~
trienthusiast
nice book idea! If I had any time on top of job, side project and family i'd
buy it!

question. I see you use Gumroad. Reasons not to go with Clickbank? No need for
affiliates?

------
miniverse
I've self-published 26 ebooks in the last three years. It's a great time to be
an author. I hire a formatter, editors, and cover designers and we work as a
team to create the books.

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...](http://authorearnings.com/report/july-2014-author-earnings-
report/)

Also, [http://www.thepassivevoice.com](http://www.thepassivevoice.com) is a
tremendous resource for an overview and navigation of the disruption.

------
alanorourke
I have written two books so far and have a third outlined. They are marketing
ideas and how-to books. I made a few thousand euro from them so far(They still
sell) but perhaps more importantly they helped open a few awesome doors for a
me a couple of months ago when I was looking for a job. I ended up with some
great job offers.

I wrote up 12 things i learned from my first book here: [http://beautiful-
email-newsletters.com/books/12-things-i-lea...](http://beautiful-email-
newsletters.com/books/12-things-i-learnt-from-publishing-my-first-book/)

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.

------
interintel
After my 10 year old daughter came to me and told me that one of her goals was
to learn how to program a computer, being a Computer Scientist, I was very
happy to hear my child wanting to learn some of the things I knew, and I
immediately started to look for something that would help her begin the
process of computer programming.

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.

------
kulachilli
I co-authored a book called How to Make Money in Open Face Chinese Poker:
[http://www.amazon.com/Make-Money-Open-Chinese-Poker-
ebook/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Make-Money-Open-Chinese-Poker-
ebook/dp/B00JXOM7Y6)

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.

------
ConnectHappines
I wrote connecting Happiness and Success via Kindle. Got it to #1 on 2 Amazon
Best Seller lists using KDP select. Wrote it in word and paid $50 for kindle
to convert it. The process was really simple and more people should try it. It
has opened a lot of doors and got me a lot of press. Not a great way to make
living, but definitely a good creative outlet that supports your business.

------
octopus
Nathan Barry [http://nathanbarry.com/](http://nathanbarry.com/) writes on his
websites about writing and self publishing.

