Packt seem to be a quota publisher. They're more focussed on getting a steady stream of titles out of the door than making those titles definitive, and they tend to spam anyone who looks even slightly competent. I know a number of people who had offers from them, and they're invariably low-ball compared to other publishers.
The top tier publishers pay an advance - which you probably won't ever make back, so you may as well consider it final payment for the book. O'Reilly like to pay nothing up front, so all you ever see are royalties. This can work well for a popular and timely topic. Niche titles won't pay much, although they can still be a good thing to have on a resume.
The really big money used to be in the mainstream - how to use Windows, how to set up an iPhone - but that's less of a thing now that a lot of people Google for help.
Sales figures for hardcore developer titles can be very low. Five figures for a developer title is a solid success. Six figures would be a wildly unexpected best seller, and seven figures a complete unicorn. Four figures are more typical, and high three figures can happen.
The catch with royalties is whether they're a percentage of the cover price or the publisher income. Publisher income can be 50% or less of the cover price, so that's a thing to consider when working out if a book project is worth the time.
With self-publishing, you keep a much higher proportion of the earnings. Anyone who is thinking about this should work some numbers through a spreadsheet. You'll find you can make the same money a publisher would pay with far fewer sales, and if you can get four or five figure sales - unlikely and very difficult, but not impossible - it's a nice alternative income stream.
If you already have any kind of following, it's a no-brainer. If you don't, it's a huge marketing effort, but you still get to have final say on the timing of updates and revisions, which can keep a title earning longer than a publisher would keep it alive.
This is accurate. I would add that, in my experience, the value-add of working with a technical editor to shape the book and stay on track is definitely worth the cost of an editor.
And then there are typesetters, copywriters, graphists, reviewers, marketers and distribution platforms that do a lot of the work of making a book successful. Sure, writing is critical, but bringing a high quality book to readers requires a lot of work that you have to do yourself when self-publishing.
The top tier publishers pay an advance - which you probably won't ever make back, so you may as well consider it final payment for the book. O'Reilly like to pay nothing up front, so all you ever see are royalties. This can work well for a popular and timely topic. Niche titles won't pay much, although they can still be a good thing to have on a resume.
The really big money used to be in the mainstream - how to use Windows, how to set up an iPhone - but that's less of a thing now that a lot of people Google for help.
Sales figures for hardcore developer titles can be very low. Five figures for a developer title is a solid success. Six figures would be a wildly unexpected best seller, and seven figures a complete unicorn. Four figures are more typical, and high three figures can happen.
The catch with royalties is whether they're a percentage of the cover price or the publisher income. Publisher income can be 50% or less of the cover price, so that's a thing to consider when working out if a book project is worth the time.
With self-publishing, you keep a much higher proportion of the earnings. Anyone who is thinking about this should work some numbers through a spreadsheet. You'll find you can make the same money a publisher would pay with far fewer sales, and if you can get four or five figure sales - unlikely and very difficult, but not impossible - it's a nice alternative income stream.
If you already have any kind of following, it's a no-brainer. If you don't, it's a huge marketing effort, but you still get to have final say on the timing of updates and revisions, which can keep a title earning longer than a publisher would keep it alive.