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by markwisde 1517 days ago
I sold around 300 in my first year (which ended recently), which is much less than the other book I wrote via my publisher. Yet, even though it is sold at a lesser price, my self-published book made almost more money. This is essentially because the percentage I make on every sales with my publisher is really low (10%). So for my next book, I'll self publish as well.

(the book btw https://securityhandbook.io/)
4 comments
nonrandomstring 1517 days ago
Awesome, a really pithy and down to earth workaday style that complements the exhaustive tomes like Ross Anderson's.

What I've found so important is knowing your keywords and making sure your work is associated with the right BIC/BIS Subject Category Codes [1]

"Security Engineering" (a much better term imho) has a lesser impact in academic sales than "Ethical Hacking" and "Cybersecurity" because of how courses are named, and therefore how graduates and recruiters think of the skill namespace. Make sure you get coverage on all the terms adjacent to yours.

[1] I hear they are being replaced by a new international standard in 2023, so it's a dynamic area for authors to be aware of - kinda SEO for writers.

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ivansavz 1517 days ago
RE [1]: very interesting. Thx for the heads-up about this. I found this related anncoucement, https://www.bic.org.uk/files/pdfs/Press%20Releases/Press%20R... which says the replacement will be the Thema scheme: https://ns.editeur.org/thema/en
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ghaff 1517 days ago
The main tradeoff for me is that--rightly or not--going through a major publisher confers some prestige and Good Housekeeping seal of approval in the minds of a lot of people. So, if you're doing a book for reputational purposes rather than cash, that can be a consideration.

I've done it both ways. But if I do more, at this point in my career, they'll probably just be relatively short ebooks.

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mhaberl 1517 days ago
I like the landing page for the book (is that the right name for it?) except one detail and I wonder if it done so purposely - I don't see any any info about the book (file) format. I assume it is only available as an e-book.
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sb8244 1517 days ago
Pragmatic may be worth exploring. The 50% cut is really high compared to rest of publishers, and I believe that 80% of my sales came from their reputation and marketing.
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