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by ahdroit 3027 days ago
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/so-you-want-be-writer
1 comments

Yeah. I recently wrote a book and got most of it done within a few hours of morning + coffee sessions over a few weeks and one or two airplane rides. It made like $12K in its first year and it was really easy. Thinking this was an incredibly time-efficient way for me to earn money and contribute to society, I tried to write a sequel and have stalled.

The initial book just poured out of me. I had an outline, I knew exactly what I wanted to say and I just wrote the content. In that way it was like tackling a college paper or trello board, but instead, a few hundred pages of text.

Like I've said.. no other ideas have really coalesced into something outlineable and easy-to-market.. I have one manuscript that's 80 pages and sucks, another at 40+, etc etc. Reminds me of the hobbyist programmer population here with tons of unfinished projects.

I really had something to say and felt entitled to say it.

How did you publish and promote? I’m sitting on a finished book now and I’m sort of at a loss for what to do with it. I put out some of the audio as a podcast that has done “ok” but haven’t pulled the trigger on actual publishing
* Self-publishing was with Amazon, draft2digital, and direct sales (sendowl)

* Did cover on Canva.com

* Made a list of podcasts in the programming niche and emailed a bunch of the hosts with suggesting they invite me as a guest

That's about it. I do some ongoing pay per click marketing too.

Was the subject of the book technical?
We wrote a book to help software engineers learn to become (and grow as) successful freelance consultants. https://engineersguidetofreelance.com
http://engineersguidetofreelance.com

^ https was not enabled :[