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A publisher will never pay you enough to justify writing a book if you're looking at it myopically.
As my therapist likes to say, "A book is a really thick business card."
It's an investment with long-term dividends in the form of job offers and promos and speaking gigs.
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As my therapist likes to say, "A book is a really thick business card."
It's an investment with long-term dividends in the form of job offers and promos and speaking gigs.
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Unless your last name is Obama or Kardashian or Clinton, you will make pennies an hour writing a book.
I mean that. Honestly I probably lost money writing DevOps for Dummies.
I went to the bar downstairs to write. That's a lot of cheese plates and wine on the credit card.
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I mean that. Honestly I probably lost money writing DevOps for Dummies.
I went to the bar downstairs to write. That's a lot of cheese plates and wine on the credit card.
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I also let a lot of shit fall through the cracks because you're not a robot. I didn't pay my taxes for a year. I forgot to renew my plates. I paid late fees on all sorts of shit.
But! I got through it. And now I have my name on a book. Forever.
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But! I got through it. And now I have my name on a book. Forever.
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That shit is in the Library of Congress.
This results in all sorts of things:
- People think I'm an expert without me having to do anything.
- I get more speaking gigs because people read my book.
- I have more name recognition.
- Getting jobs got a lot easier.
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This results in all sorts of things:
- People think I'm an expert without me having to do anything.
- I get more speaking gigs because people read my book.
- I have more name recognition.
- Getting jobs got a lot easier.
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On top of all that, other publishers want to work with me because they know I can deliver.
It's a massive accomplishment and I feel proud of it.
And perhaps more romantically, there exists an artifact of my life. My daughter will be able to read that even after I'm gone.
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It's a massive accomplishment and I feel proud of it.
And perhaps more romantically, there exists an artifact of my life. My daughter will be able to read that even after I'm gone.
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tl;dr — Don't write books for the money.
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