出版与作家生涯2022greglim81.medium.com编辑精选
我靠写非虚构书籍赚到 16 万美元被动收入
I earned $160k in passive income from writing non-fiction books
导读
这篇文章讲述作者通过写非虚构类书籍获得约16万美元收入，并分享选题、篇幅和定价等经验，但评论也集中质疑“被动收入”的说法。对写作者值得读，是因为它既提供可操作的自出版策略，也提醒你理性看待收入周期、单位产出和持续营销。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
优先写100页左右、主题聚焦的短书，并把电子书定价放在2.99—9.99美元区间，以覆盖更多买家和拿到70%版税。
- 02
核算写作收益时按“时间跨度÷作品数量÷每年”拆开看，别被总额迷惑；先证明单位产出值得投入，再考虑全职。
- 03
技术或行业细分选题会过时，写的时候要预留更新和持续营销的成本，不要把它当成一次性写完就永久收钱的资产。
- 04
把“写很多书、碰一点运气、持续营销”当作现实预期，标题里的收入故事要还原成工作量和概率。
HN 评论精选
收入要按时间跨度和作品数量拆算，别被总额误导；高付出低单位回报未必值得替代高薪工作。
这类文章总让我不舒服（也可能是我自己先入为主）：我一看到金额就默认是年收入，16万美元/年听起来是很好的被动收入；可一看原文，原来是六年合计，那每年只有约2.6万美元，想把它做成正经生意风险就大多了。截图里还有78本书？算下来每本书每年约341美元，我的感受立刻从“这生意不错”变成“算了”。这类“我做X赚了N美元”的文章大多如此：标题很猛，细看结论无非是“干很多活、有点运气，别忘了营销”。我不是要贬低作者，六年写这么多书本身很厉害；但如果你本来做技术工作年入15—20万美元，你真的愿意为多赚几千块这么拼命吗？
pc86查看英文原文
The thing that always bothers me about these articles, and I completely accept it may just me reading into it what I want to see, is I immediately assume the dollar figure is annual. $160k/yr sounds like great passive income. You could certainly stop working a 9-5 and build out a really great lifestyle business. But then I look at the article. Oh, it's over six years? Okay, $26k/yr is a lot less and all of a sudden it's a big risk to try and turn that into a real business. Wait, what's that in the screenshot? 78 books? $341 per book, per year. And my thought goes from "that sounds like a great little business!" to "fuck that" within about fifteen seconds. And such is the lifecycle of these "how I made $n doing x" articles. Great claims that when you dig into them, the resulting wisdom is basically "do a lot of work, and have a little bit of luck. And don't forget the marketing!" I don't mean to tear down what the author did by any stretch, it's impressive regardless of the time frame. But if you're already making $150-200k/yr from a tech job, do you really want to bust your ass for another couple grand?
写技术类细分书不是永久被动收入，应如实按每本书收益和持续维护成本来定位。
快速翻看后，作者六年至少写了16本书并靠此赚钱，这很难算我所说的“被动收入”。而且这些书大多（也许全部）讲的是当前技术的细分主题，也不会永远被动地带来收入。更合适的标题和角度也许是《我如何每本书赚1万美元，并在保住本职工作的同时继续写下去》——这本身就很了不起！
simonjgreen查看英文原文
Writing (from a quick skim check) at least 16 books over a period of 6 years, and earning money from that, is not exactly what I'd call "passive income". And given the topics are mostly (all?) about niches in current technologies they also won't continue to deliver passively forever. A more appropriate title and angle might be "How I've earned $10k/book and manage to keep writing more while maintaining a day job". (Which is in itself impressive!)
写短书、低定价扩大读者群，并利用亚马逊电子书2.99—9.99美元的70%版税区间。
感谢这些有用的建议！很实在的一条是：写短而精炼的书。与其写一本500页、卖50美元（可能没多少人买）的大书，不如写100页、定价更低，购买人数会大大增加！这也落在亚马逊电子书2.99—9.99美元的价格区间内，可拿70%版税；低于或高于这个区间只有35%版税。这是电子书的情况，平装书定价结构不同，可以定更高、版税率也不同。
achow查看英文原文
Thank you for helpful tips! Solid advice: Write Short and Concise Books. Instead of writing a 500-page book selling for $50 (which probably few will buy), write a 100-page book and sell it for lesser which greatly increases the number of buyers! ...It fits in Amazon’s price range of $2.99 — $9.99 (gets 70% royalties for ebooks). Anything lesser or more gets 35% royalty. This is for the ebook version. Paperbacks have a different price structure. You can price them higher with higher royalty rates.
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