出版与作家生涯2010blog.jgc.org
《极客地图》一年的销售：关于图书版税的一些事实
A year of Geek Atlas sales (some facts about book royalties)
导读
这篇博文以《Geek Atlas》一年的销售和版税数据，说明作者实际拿到的版税往往远低于读者的购书价格，并引出“写书是否值得”、出版社条件和题材寿命等讨论。对写作者的价值在于：动笔前先把销量、版税、发行渠道和内容持久性算清楚。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
动笔前估算目标读者规模、出版商渠道和内容保鲜期，别只盯着版税率。
- 02
优先写常青内容；追热点或写新奇题材，要预期销量可能只集中在上市后一两年。
- 03
自出版适合小批量、爱好型项目；若追求投入产出比，优先争取渠道强的大出版商。
- 04
把版税、编辑费等写书收入与数月劳动时间对照，先判断经济上是否值得。
HN 评论精选
图书收入受出版商渠道和题材持久性影响；自出版适合小批量爱好项目，追求回报应优先大出版商。
出书要考虑题材适用面有多广，以及出版商实际能把你的书铺多广。我出了第四本书（若算上受雇写的作品是第七本），预计它不如前作，因为出版商更小、应用领域更窄。我前几本书的出版商是 HarperCollins 的子公司，自己也经营书店，渠道广得多，版税报表能看出来。自出版能提高小批量销售的回报，但也有缺点；大出版商更懂客户，若他们不愿接，就要怀疑市场。自出版通常适合自己作为爱好开发、想分享的小项目；想靠写书获得高回报，还是大出版商更合适。作品寿命也直接取决于内容是否常青：写时髦或新奇的东西，可能只有一两年像样销量；我尽量写常青内容，所以至今仍收到版税。
all查看英文原文
When considering publishing a book, one must consider how widely applicable the subject matter is and how widely the publisher can actually disseminate your work. I just published my fourth book, seventh if you count works that I have written for hire. I do not expect it to do as well as my previous works because the publisher is smaller and the domain of application is much more restricted. The publisher of my first few books is a subsidiary of HarperCollins and runs bookstores itself, so its channels are much more pervasive. This is shown in the royalty statements. Self-publishing naturally boosts the ROI on small runs, but it is not without its drawbacks. Whenever I have thought of a book that I might self-publish, I question whether it is worth writing. The major publishers know their customer better than I could realistically hope to ever know. If they would not take it on, one must wonder about the market for it. I do not say this to mean one should not self-publish, but self-publishing is usually reserved for pet projects that one has developed as a hobby and want to share. If one is looking for a high ROI on the effort it takes to write a book, the larger publishers are the way to go. Also, the longevity of one's work is directly related to how evergreen the content is. If one writes something sexy or novel, I suspect one would be lucky to get a year or two of decent sales out of it. I write as evergreen as I can. so to this day, I am still receiving cheques from a book that I published 4-5 years ago that are close to the same level as what I received originally. It remains in the top 3% on Amazon.com. This is highly unusual, but it can be done. You will seldom get rich off a single title, but you can develop several streams of passive income if you write well and can engage readers. My 2¢, fwiw.
小众书的实际销量和收入能否养活作者，是比版税率更关键的问题。
我理解文章总体揭示了版税情况，但漏了更直接有趣的问题：写《Geek Atlas》在金钱上值得吗？我读到它不是为钱写的，也理解版税相比顾客付的价格很小。但我好奇这样的书（面向少数人、更像新奇玩意）销量是否好到能养活一个人。结合最近各地薪资的讨论，John 能否分享一个很粗略的销量估计？我猜答案可能是“太私人”，否则会写进博客来强化“不为钱”，但礼貌问一下总可以。
darklajid查看英文原文
I guess I understand that, while providing a good insight into royalties in general, the article left out something more directly interesting: Was it worth, monetary, to write the Geek Atlas? It wasn't written for the money, I read that. And I understand that the royalties are smallish, compared to the prices payed by the customers. But I do wonder if a book like that (targeted at a "minority", more a "novelty" thing from what I can tell) sells good enough to keep a single guy alive. So - in the light of the recent talks about salaries around the world in general and in NYC/the bay area specifically: John - would mind sharing a very rough estimate of sales for this book? (I guess the answer is "It's too personal", because otherwise it could've been part of the blog entry itself to further strengthen the "Not for the money" part, but hey - I guess it's always okay to ask politely)
不同出版社的版税条款差异明显，作者应比较合同。
去年这话题已在 HN 传过；我写过一篇类似但长 50 倍的文章，讲我的书《Beginning Ruby》：http://beginningruby.org/what-ive-earned-and-learned/。有趣的是，从这篇帖子看，Apress 给的条款似乎比 O'Reilly 更好。
petercooper查看英文原文
It already went round the HN mill last year but just in case anyone finds it interesting now, I wrote something similar (but about 50x longer, for various reasons) about my book, Beginning Ruby: http://beginningruby.org/what-ive-earned-and-learned/ Intriguingly, it seems from this post that Apress offers better terms than O'Reilly..
技术编辑等写书相关工作的报酬也可能很低，几个月仅数百英镑。
我是那本（很糟糕的）《Practical OCaml》的技术编辑，几个月工作赚了 650 英镑（税后约 450 英镑）：http://blog.merjis.com/2006/11/08/practical-ocaml/
rwmj查看英文原文
I was technical editor of the (dreadful) Practical OCaml, for which I made £650 (about £450 after tax) for months of work: http://blog.merjis.com/2006/11/08/practical-ocaml/
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