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Happy New Year! 1999 site review <Next>
Charles Carroll OPINION column write darthcarroll@asplists.com with feedback
So You Want to Write a Book? -or- When are you writing a Book Charles?
I get asked this every once in a while. Heck on January 10, 2001 someone asked me and I decided they deserved the full story. Here it is!
Good question. Every major publisher has offered me many times. I studied the economics and fame opportunities of writing a book early in my career and came to some startling conclusions. Bear with me while I explain. And HEY I did write a book. I would assert that http://www.learnasp.com/learn is indeed a book, and that "online book" has a Table-of-Contents, Alphabetical Index and can be printed as one 300+ page entity (see <print, more options>) so I would assert I have written a book. It is free and I apologize for that if you wanted to BUY one from me.
My conclusion was that unless someone negotiates and rewrites their entire contract, and makes an exceptional multi-book deal so they can write for all future software versions and re-use some writing the economics are awful and the chance for fame not so good. Writing magazine articles, page for page, word for word pays much better and the color presentation of work (screen shots, etc.) and magazine editors produce higher quality results than books. Most magazine editors have mastered conciseness and ease of understanding; most book editors believe in selling books by the pound. And launching a website and giving away same material allows for incrementally writing, constant revision (I rewrite pages like http://www.learnasp.com/learn/res2.asp constantly whereas most sites leave mistakes or outdated information intact and don't update once written (like books the websites publish and don't revise despite the fact that doing so is cheap and having incorrect info online is harmful to reputation). We also believe in "viral" and "permission marketing" -- Asplists.com and some new secret projects we are doing thus year is part of that. Books do not have that kind of power.
The Economics of Books
If you look at the amount of work it takes to write a decent book (which is as far as most people go) or the 4 x more work in writing a superb books (a future article I am almost done with will clarify my definition of superb) and how much the publishers will pay the hourly pay is very bad. On the excellent DOTNET developmentor list, Authors were asked whether writing books were worth it and the results are frightening).
Should I write a book to get famous/make money?
In fact, someone pondering writing sent me this question.
Q: What is an expected return on a writing investment for a book? (i.e $10,000, $100,000, $500,000, etc.)
Computer field. $10k - 40k.
Every contract offered to me was for 5k to 20k up front and very small royalties (most computer books sell 15,000 copies average, 160,000 would be beyond imagination) sales so royalty calculations should take that into account.
Authors already made a decent living before the book. The book is pro-bono work. Magazine articles is immediate real money or launching your own website could lead to HUGE money in long-term (we have 22,000 daily unique visitors, in 8 days we surpass entire sales of WROX PRO ASP for 2 years). Any given title will not make much money unless it follows "22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" or gets very lucky.
The Economics of Err.. NOT Books Magazines?? Your own website?
But alternatives are taking much less material and much less work and packaging as separate magazine articles (MIND and VBPJ pay $1,500 - $3,000 per 2-3 page articles versus 20k for a 600-1000 page book you do the math) which pays much better and requires less words and more conciseness and spreads fame faster.
Or packaging as a website (like www.learnasp.com/learn): my FREE book online had $350,000 in banner ad revenue last year with no middlemen, just me and wife. And will generate income next year. It also resulted in a even larger $$$$ figure for my training business as my classes filled due to reputation free online book generates. My training business does not need to run traditional ads since the free book is my credibility.
Book Contracts, The Dark Side....
"Patrick Enlow" (an aspiring writer) also has done much research in this and discovered some things anyone thinking about writing a book should know.
To All: I have been doing extensive research on the web about contract negotiation. The more I look the worst it gets. I have found a link that all authors should be aware of at the Authors Guild. I found this shocking and helpful. I hope I can return the help with this link to all that have help me thus far. http://www.authorsguild.org/contractadvice.html Clearly the publisher is not on the authors side in the contract.
Even some of the most prolific programming authors would agree with Charles that the publishing industry has a dark side. Before you jump into a deal take a look at Dan Appleman and Gary Cornell's http://www.apress.com. This section of their site http://www.apress.com/aboutapress.htm is what sparked my interest to work with them. We're just talking right now, but at this point I'd put them at the top of my list in the publishing industry.
I am also reading a book called "The Writers Legal Companion". http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=073820031X/learnasp
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In addition to what Pat says I would like to add that book contracts and accepting them without your lawyer studying them and negotiating them is a big mistake. Read "Secrets of Power Negotiation" by Roger Dawson. But since you don't have time to read it quickly. Go to http://www.summary.com and order the executive summary (3- page condensed version) immediately. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1564144984/learnasp
Study the entertainment industry specifically the record industry (not the MOVIE industry) to see how the contracts screw the author and how to avoid it. Book publishers have been screwing authors almost exactly like Record Labels screw first time recording artists. Not quite as bad, but close.
Some other supporting notes based on questions Pat asked me:
Q: How long before you see a return?
Only if next version does not need substantial revision or product is at beginning of release cycle without any new versions planned for awhile do you get a return and then it is dicey. An Office 95 book that needed substantial revision for Office 97 starts the cycle again.
Q: What major issues did you have with your publisher?
They don't market books or themselves very well (excepting WROX) so sales will be low to medium even on a fantastic book. Editors and Publishers detract from quality and market in very counter-productive ways . Read the books at: http://www.learnasp.com/aspfuture/booksmarket.asp if you want to understand how publishers are committing suicide (except WROX which is committing suicide much slower) by brand extension, line extension, poor management, and cookie-cutter approaches and "copy-cat" approaches.
What does the Publisher do with all the money?
The sad part is a lot of that money goes to employee bloat in the middle who actually hurt the book (except at WROX where they hurt it the least and in complex insidious ways):
a) The Producers/Execs 1. ruin relationship with each writer (killing the goose that can lay golden eggs) who has the most brains so subsequent versions have to be done by different writers -- musical authors. Most books then get written by inexperienced first time writer or writers who are too imperceptive to see the loose-win cycle and their books suffer similar lack of judgement in organizing, etc. 2. participate in the bloat without question and personalize/add to the bloat but rarely subtract bloat 3. Repeat history by brand-extending and line-extending as if they knew nothing about the last 100 years of marketing history. 4. Don't bother to stay current on issues. They should simply go to: http://www.summary.com and subscribe to "executive summaries" read the 3-6 page summaries that come monthly and begin improving their marketing and management processes.
b) editors that don't add value instead 1. demand books fit "cookie cutter" formulas, specific page counts, etc. 2. clutter books with irrelevant technology 3. clutter with material not likely to please intended audience because will please EVERY audience 4. Instead "cover gold eggs (early drafts of innovative books) with lesser metals" by forcing their content and layout to become like every book they have been involved with and play it safe 5. Pay no attention to best-sellers outside of the computer field and never adapt the format of computer books accordingly.
c) Management delays publication by 1. working by postal instead of email. Adding way too much time to process of finding and negotiating and choosing title/book themes with nonsense (they are desensitized to) where small publishers would not. 2. waiting until software ships or is close to shipping to start book 3. demanding books fit book pages sizes their printers like 4. printers who are overcharging for everything and delay release by demanding TOO large print runs (typos can't be fixed in next printings, initial printings are so large) and too much lead time
Is that all you have to say about books?
Not at all. Follow up articles will give my opinions on best ASP Books ever, best Computer books ever (so writers have a model), best magazines to read and some marketing tips for people marketing their own websites with small budgets and big ideas.
Our belief in "viral" and "permission marketing" and the new tools like listservers and websites that the Internet offers that could enhance a book are not being used very well. Books are not integrating themselves with these media and tools -- errata online doesn't count.. Of course WROX lied to me and cheated me when they had their first ASP convention (back issue of AspyNews as full story and emails back and forth) which meant I would not co-operate with them in helping their books incorporate these new "viral" and "permission marketing" and making their books more modern entities. If I did get involved in books it would be to dramatically update the model to catch it up with magazines and the web -- and build a new kind of printed book. I have prepared detailed specs for such a venture and may share it with a publisher flexible enough to implement it -- but WROX and SAMs don't seem to have the vision to move books beyond their current paradigm instead focusing on making perfect "dead horses" so offering them these specs is just not sensible; I await a publisher with more vision.
To summarize, book publishers make a killing, authors are exploited and make little for a lot of hard work (and thus spend less time with families since they are moonlighting I have collected a lot of letters from first-time writers who don't write again because work vs. payoff is low, or writers who admit they write for LOVE not money), customers are getting at best good books but the whole model is wrong, and people would learn more from subscribing to magazines then reading books.
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