出版与作家生涯2020twitter.com
写一本软件书，赚到超过十万美元
Writing a software book and making over $100k
导读
这条推文展示了一位技术书作者靠写软件类图书收入超过 10 万美元，引发 HN 上关于技术写作变现的讨论。对写作者来说，最有价值的是成功者分享的可复制方法论：市场选择、产品打包和持续推广缺一不可。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
写书收入的一半来自写作本身，另一半来自持续写博客、积累邮件订阅者等推广工作，两者时间要各占 50%。
- 02
选题材时先评估市场大小：太窄的主题（如'用 Clojure 在 Arduino 上做广告拦截器'）卖不出量，宽泛的主流主题才有 10 万美元的潜力。
- 03
把书做成完整的学习产品：多格式电子书、视频、社区、作者答疑、练习题等，比一个 200 页的 PDF 值钱得多。
- 04
不要指望发几篇文章就有销量，需要每周产出优质内容、提供可下载资源，并积累 1 万以上的邮件列表再发布。
HN 评论精选
靠技术书赚 10 万美元可复制，核心是市场够大、产品打包完整、长期积累邮件列表做推广。
这些数字是可能且可复制的，我至少 7 次靠软件书赚到超过 10 万美元。关键是为写作积累受众（比如邮件列表），时间上 50% 写书、50% 写博客和推广。赚到 10 万美元有三个关键：一是市场——题材要足够宽（反例：'用 Clojure 在 Arduino 上做广告拦截器'；正例：'D3 完全指南'）；二是产品与保障——读者买到的不该只是 200 页 PDF，而应是 400 页多格式电子书、2 小时视频、社区邀请、专家访谈、作者答疑、测验和练习册；三是推广力度——在 Medium 发 3 篇文章没用，要写出色的内容、每周更新、做可下载资源、收集邮箱，向 1 万到 10 万订阅者的邮件列表发布。听到'编程书赚不到钱'时，用这三条过滤一下对方的做法就明白了——大多数人赚不到钱，是因为做对这件事很难。积累 1 万订阅可能要几个月，但游戏就是这么玩的。
jashmenn查看英文原文
These numbers are possible and repeatable. I've made over $100k on software books at least 7 separate times [1]. If you're going to try to do this, the key idea is to build an audience e.g. an email list. You need to budget 50% of your time to writing the book and 50% of your time to blogging/promoting the content. There's basically three key aspects to making $100k on a programming book: 1. Market - is the topic broad enough to sell $100k in copies? Weak market: Build an Adblocker with Clojure on Arduino Strong market: Complete Guide to D3 2. Offering + guarantee - what does the student get when they buy? Weak offering: my 200-page pdf Strong offering: my 400+page pdf/epub/mobi, 2 hours of video intro, invite to community chat, interviews with experts, support, questions answered by the author, quizzes, and worksheets 3. Promotion Effort Weak promotion: posting 3 times to medium Strong promotion: writing remarkable content, posting weekly, creating downloadable resources, collecting emails - launching to an email list of 10k-100k+ When you hear someone say, "you can't make money in programming books" run their strategy through the filter above. It's no wonder most folks don't make much money, because doing it right is hard. It can take months to build an email list of 10k, but that's how the game works. [shameless self plug] If you're thinking about creating a programming book or a course, this is what I do and I'd love to chat. See here: https://www.newline.co/write-with-us [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17015117
有人整理了技术书发布的成功案例清单，可供参考学习。
对其他案例感兴趣的人，我研究了很多成功案例并整理成清单，用于我自己的新书发布：https://github.com/sw-yx/launch-cheatsheet，我会把这条也加进去。
swyx查看英文原文
for those interested in other examples I studied a bunch of them and compiled them into this list for my own book launch https://github.com/sw-yx/launch-cheatsheet I'll be adding this one naturally
技术书收入上限有限且不稳定，写书的动机应是热情而非金钱。
我认为这类似于 NBA 球星的成功故事。如果 10 万美元在计算机图书收入里已算非常成功，那钱就不该是写书的主要动机——在软件行业有更可靠赚钱的方式，随便去一家标普 500 公司工作，不到一年就能轻松赚到同样的钱，而且基本有保障。我知道这不是二选一的问题，只是说明金钱不应是写书的主要动力。
xchaotic查看英文原文
I consider this a success story similar to an NBA star making it. So if 100k is very successful in terms of computer book revenues, then I’d say money should not be the main motivation to do it, as there’s better, more reliable ways to earn money in the software industry - working for any SP500 company will easily get you the same amount of money in less than a year, more or less guaranteed. I know it’s not either or situation, just that it proves that money should not be main motivator for writing a book.
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