[dcatx]

Interesting to see the process and royalty rates from a big (tech) publisher.

I wrote and self-published a book (really a web app structured like a book) on Ruby on Rails to Gumroad earlier this year and so far I have made ~$4,000 after Gumroad's small cut. Based on the royalty rates quoted here, I expect self-publishing is probably going to produce more raw dollars for most people, even those like me with no name recognition or built-in distribution channel for their book.

Of course, even with more money in self-publishing, the hourly rate I've made from writing is a small fraction of what I would have made filling that time with consulting work instead. I expect that in the long run, going with a traditional publisher would be more valuable just from the prestige attached to publishing a "real" book rather than going the self-publishing route. I've gotten a few consulting leads from my book, but a self-published book carries very little weight with most folks.