Category: Nonfiction Books

General publishing announcements

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The Purpose of Tech Books

I just got asked one too many times, “What’s in this book that’s not in the man pages?” And I’ve snapped.

I’m blogging my answer, so I can point here and save myself from typing the answer again.

I’m best known for writing about BSD technologies, a field where the developers are notoriously detailed in their documentation. If you look at the man pages for any open-source BSD, you’ll see that everything is included. If something is missing, it’s a bug. In addition there are extensive, lovingly-maintained FAQs and community-supported handbooks. How could I possibly add anything to than knowledge?

The short answer is: integration and context.

The man pages almost certainly contain everything you want to know. But man pages are not examples. Man pages do not provide context for the use of that knowledge. The ability to read disparate manuals and assemble that knowledge into a working, cohesive whole is a very specific skill. Programmers, in particular programmers who learn new technologies, have that skill. Many systems administrators develop that skill, after years of practice.

Some people can take a whole pile of man pages, assimilate their contents, integrate that knowledge together, and create a holistic understanding of the field they cover. They can extrapolate from documents into use cases, and reverse-extrapolate from actual uses into configuration. If you are one of these people, I have two things to say to you:

1) You do not need my books.
2) You are smarter than me.
3) By attempting to convince me of things I already know, you are wasting your own time.

I also concede that many technology books are nothing more than recitals of man pages. Others are nothing more than collections of screenshots, saying “click the Next box” four hundred times. These books are a waste of electrons and wood pulp. I blame them for dragging down the reputation of technology writing. (I also writhe in envy because these books sell far, far better than mine. But that’s a separate issue)

Good technology writing provides context for the information, and guides the reader to create a holistic understanding. Yes, some people can do that purely by reading man pages. Others need help.

Why should I write a book that competes directly with, say, the FreeBSD Handbook or the OpenBSD FAQ? Not everybody learns in the same way. Discussing the same facts in different language, with a different organization, makes the knowledge take a different path through the reader’s mind. The reader’s job is to use new information to make new connections in their brain, and seeing the same information presented very differently can help.

On a personal level, I do my best to make the job of getting that information easy, and present the reader with a whole bunch of ready-made connections.

If you want me to listen to your proclamation of superiority, I have to say: put your money where your mouth is. Donate the list price of one of my books to an open-source project that I write about. If you feel the uncontrollable need to advertise your superiority, write “That Moron Lucas Is Wasting His Time” in the note field. Copy me on the emailed receipt. At that time I will pay attention to you, in direct proportion to the size of the donation. I won’t change what I do, mind you — I probably won’t even answer the email — but I’ll pay attention to you. And I promise you, the recipient project won’t mind.

Update 5/2/2013: With the OpenBSD book coming out, I’m getting more of these. What really amuses me is that people think it’s important that I know the book is not useful.

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February “SSH Mastery” sales numbers and expenses

I promised several authors results of my private label publishing experiment. I now have sales numbers from February from Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, and CreateSpace. Just like the January post, this comes with some caveats:

  • This includes only SSH Mastery. I have removed my fiction from the totals. Again, fiction sales are considerably lower, but growing.
  • This excludes the 200 copies bought at cost by the OpenBSD/OpenSSH team for fundraising, and the 40 review copies I ordered.
  • I’m not going to regularly report sales numbers to the general public. I will say when I break even.

    Without further ado, here’s the numbers:

  • Amazon Kindle: 163 ebooks sold (135 US, 14 UK, 10 DE, 2 FR, 1 IT, 1 ES), for a total of ~$1100.83. (Amazon reports European royalties in euros or pounds, so the exact total will vary with the day they compute the check).
  • Barnes & Noble: 8 ebooks sold, for $51.92
  • Smashwords: 109 ebooks sold, for $869.80
  • CreateSpace: 4 physical books sold, for $41.27
  • Total: 280 ebooks, 4 physical books, for a total of ~$2063.

    I said last month that February sales were lower than January’s. One a per-day basis, they were much lower. But the book only went live on Amazon on 20 January. The excellent January numbers were due to my hard-core fans buying it. (And I thank you all, sincerely.)

    Similarly, the print version was available on 27 February, if you bought it directly from my CreateSpace store. It went live on Amazon on 29 February. One copy sold on the 27th, and three on the 29th. The March average per-day sales per venue will be lower, but the greater number of days will create higher totals.

    A couple sales per day per channel adds up. The B&N sales don’t look impressive, but hey, it’s $52 that I wouldn’t otherwise get, and eight readers I wouldn’t otherwise have.

    I expect sales to go down from this point on. Reviews drive sales. Reviews this far have all been from people who follow my work. There’s nothing wrong with that — indeed, I appreciate every review. But I think I’ve basically worked through all the reviewers in my hard-core fan base. In the future, I must attract disinterested reviews. I have saved the contact information for everyone who has ever reviewed my work, and am working my way through the list offering review copies. I’m going slowly; I’d rather have 3 reviews a month for 6 months than 18 reviews in one month.

    So, what about the expenses? Publishing this cost:

  • $2,581 for the publishing workshop I attended. Mind you, I took two workshops in a row, I flew to Oregon, I rented a car, I ate at a couple really good restaurants.
  • $227 for artwork. My graphic skills are appalling, so I hired a graphic artist. This includes getting all the line drawings for the book done professionally, some touch-up on screenshots, and the Tilted Windmill Press corporate logo in high-res in six different sizes.
  • $226.50 for page layout. I don’t feel like learning to use InDesign right now.
  • $150.00 for copyediting the manuscript.
  • $214.57 for CreateSpace print fees. This includes several rounds of proofs and 40 review copies, as well as the fees to get the book into the Ingram’s catalog for bookstores.

    So, how much more do I need to sell to break even?

    Total expenditures: $3,399.86.
    Total Jan-Feb royalties: $3506.88

    I have made $107.02 in about forty days of sales (assuming my time is free). So, I’d like to give a sincere “thank you!” to the 482 people who bought SSH Mastery in January and February, as well as those who bought it since then.

    Again, this assumes that my time to write, design, lay out, test, corral reviews, and so on, is free. Also, I don’t have that cash in hand yet. Ebook retailers delay payment for 30-60 days after the close of the month or quarter. I’ll get my first check at the beginning of April.

    Clearly, the self-publishing route is viable, if you have good content. (I’ll babble about tech book content, and the distressing quality thereof, some other time.)

    If you want to do this yourself, I strongly recommend you to get into Dean Wesley Smith’s Think like a Publisher workshop. No, I don’t encourage you to go. I command you to go. DWS is a fiction writer, and his other workshops are for fiction writers, but TlAP is suitable for all sorts of writers. I spent weeks pounding my head against the desk trying to figure out how all the different ebookstores work, and this workshop not only solved all those problems, it let me get this book into print as well.

    I’m also going to cut off the Big Question that I get asked any time self-publishing comes up: “What about Absolute OpenBSD, 2nd Edition?”

    Even if self-publishing SSH Mastery turns into an absolute freaking gold mine and self-publishing showers me with riches, I will finish AO2e. I will send it to NSP. I’ve promised that I would do this book, and I know many people are eagerly waiting for it. Breaking my agreement with my publisher and, more importantly, my readers, would be blatant asshole behavior. And I’m just not going to behave that way. AO2e will be the next big book I publish.

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    Book Promotion Methods and Effectiveness

    Lots of people claim to have “the secret” to promoting books. After all, your book is awesome, isn’t it? The problem must be that you aren’t promoting it. You can attend workshops, courses, and buy books that all proclaim The Secret.

    For SSH Mastery, I’m responsible for all of the promotion. I’ve followed the usual advice: I have a blog, I have Twitter, I have a fan page on Facebook, and so on. You can stalk me through any method you choose. I also have real-time access to sales data from Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes & Noble.

    For this example I’m going to use Amazon data, because Amazon provides very nice graphs through Author Central. If you’re an author and you are not on Author Central, get on it NOW. (Then check it only once a month or so.)

    Here’s the graph for Kindle sales of SSH Mastery, since its release.

    from Author Central

    Note that Amazon’s sales ranking algorithms are rather mushy. More than once, according to Author Central, this book has cracked the #10,000 limit. Most of the time, Amazon retroactively changes that. The peaks shown are generally within a day or two of when the sale took place, however. While this is undesirable, it’s better detail than the quarterly or biannual resolution you get from a publisher.

    So, what have I done to promote SSH Mastery? I’ve blogged it. I blog every time it gets a mention in the press. The blog goes into Twitter and Facebook. I also comment on the book via Twitter.

    I also thank people when they say they buy the book or when they review. Even when they don’t like the book. (This book has received all five-star reviews, but more on that later.) Being known as a nice guy, or at least a polite one, or at least “not a screaming jackass,” has publicity value all its own.

    So, how does all this impact book sales?

    There’s been four reviews or “general public statements about the book that might not be exactly a review” that I know of:

    Peter Hansteen, 22 Jan 2012
    Justin Sherrill, 2 Feb 2012
    Alexander Leidinger, 3 Feb 2012
    Richard Bejtlich, 6 Mar 2012

    (Wow. I forgot to blog Bejtlich’s review. He is my biggest fan and a staunch advocate of my work, and I completely failed to blog his review. I done him wrong. I’m a doofus.)

    There’s also been good reviews posted on all of the ebook sites. I don’t appreciate them any less, but those reviews only help when people go to the retailer’s site. That means that they already know the book exists.

    Compare those dates to the spikes on the graph. Keep in mind the mushiness of the Amazon ranking algorithm. You’ll see that the spikes roughly match up with the reviews. (If I had taken snapshots of this graph on the actual day and the day after the review, the spikes would be much more apparent, but I didn’t think of that until today. Yep, I’m a doofus.)

    There’s another small spike around 20 February that I have no explanation for. I don’t know why it’s there, but I’m glad to see it.

    The initial high sales came from the folks who follow me via my blog, Facebook, Twitter, or some other promotional medium. I was thrilled to see fans buying my work, and of course I appreciate every sale. But that surge didn’t last long, and it’s not enough to sustain a career.

    But reviews expose the book to entirely new audiences. Reviewers are force multipliers. Nurture them.

    In my case, the reviews are all positive. If I really wanted to do an experiment to test the “reviews are the only effective publicity” hypothesis, I’d write a lousy book and see how those reviews impacted sales. But my authorial pride outweighs my scientific curiosity.

    So, the most effective promotion tool? Reviews.

    Other than that: Shut up and write. No, quit jabbering and babbling. Shut up and write. Those words you’re going to use on a comment on this blog post? Put that energy into making your book awesome.

    Shut up and write.

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    SSH Mastery print now on Amazon

    You can now buy the print SSH Mastery from Amazon. The print version isn’t yet linked to the ebook version, but that will happen within 1-3 days.

    To my surprise, Amazon has not discounted the book. I don’t know why. I spoke with their author support desk, and was told that some books get discounted and some do not, according to some internal algorithm that only Amazon knows. All of my other books get discounted before publication. I assume that SSH Mastery will be discounted as well, but I have no idea when. (Yes, Amazon has an author support desk. From clicking “Call me” to resolution and hanging up the phone, total time 2 minutes 29 seconds. I am impressed.)

    For those who are interested in the numbers behind the print version:

  • If you buy from OpenBSD, I make zero. The proceeds go to support OpenBSD/OpenSSH development. I am perfectly content with this.
  • If you buy from Amazon, I make about the same as I would if you bought the ebook.
  • If you buy from my CreateSpace store, I make about twice as much money as an Amazon purchase. But there’s no Amazon Prime, no free shipping when combined with other purchase, and no discount, ever.

    Some thoughts on the CreateSpace store, while I’m at it:

    CreateSpace gives me the store automatically, for free, so I link to it; otherwise, I wouldn’t bother setting it up. Purchases from here are “giving the author extra money because you want to.” And to my surprise, someone actually bought one there, so: thank you, anonymous buyer. (Note that Amazon/CreateSpace also makes more money when you buy from the CS estore.)

    In the event that people actually start buying from the CreateSpace estore, I’d probably set up a PayPal tip jar, so that those folks who want to give me extra money can do so and still get free shipping and/or discounts. It’s a step that I’ve avoided, but if people actually want overpay me for work I honestly own, who am I to argue?

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    SSH Mastery Print Here

    Today, I received a good proof of SSH Mastery. All of the errors I know of are fixed.

    I’ve ordered 200 books for the OpenBSD Project. Those books should be manufactured this weekend and delivered next week. (For the record, the OpenBSD guys have been a pleasure to deal with.)

    Amazon should have the books available in ten days or so, Barnes & Noble and other Ingram-connected bookstores a while afterwards.

    If you absolutely must have the print book now, you can order it through my CreateSpace store. Of all the ways the book is available, I make the greatest profit on books sold through the CS store. (It also charges list price, so I’m not going to push it on people. Only order from there if you want to give me extra money.)

    If you want to pay full price, you can order it from OpenBSD. I give them the books at cost, and the rest benefits OpenBSD and OpenSSH.

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    Print pre-order for “SSH Mastery” now available

    The OpenBSD folks have made pre-orders available for SSH Mastery.

    I’m giving the books to the OpenBSD Project at cost, and they’re selling them at list as a fund-raiser. I make nothing on books ordered through OpenBSD, but the money will go to further OpenBSD, OpenSSH, PF, and who knows what else. I’m going to imagine that the money will support the annual developer barbeque, as buying beer is more fun than buying hardware.

    I will make a decent profit on books sold through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and brick-and-mortar stores. (Yes, I can get books into brick-and-mortar stores, with a bit of luck, a smidgeon of effort, and just a few ounces of blackmail.) I figure it’ll even out; the general public will order from Amazon.

    When will the books arrive? Once the proofs are approved, I’ll order the OpenBSD books before I approve sale through Amazon. I don’t know when that is yet, but believe me, I want this book out there.

    So, if I make nothing on this, why do it? It’s a good way to support a widely-used project that has written software that makes my job easier. So order yours now!

    Plus, I write about open-source software projects, preferably BSD-based ones. This means that I have to maintain good relationships with those projects. Not only am I a geek, I work at home. My usual social interactions consist of ignoring the threatening emails from the boss, the pet rats asking for treats, and the nagging phone calls from the social worker asking if I’ve taken my meds today. As you might guess, maintaining good relationships is not my strong point. If you have trouble keeping friends, try bribery. I hear it works a treat.

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    “SSH Mastery” print status

    Thursday, I received the first print proofs of SSH Mastery.

    Initial impressions: the print version looks good. The photo doesn’t do the nice glossy cover and bright colors justice, but:

    After careful inspection, though, I found a few errors. The interior images are not as sharp as I would like. Some of these I can’t really help: printouts of screenshots look like crap. But I’m more concerned about pixellation in diagrams and images.

    Plus, there’s an extraneous colon on the back cover.

    If I want this book to be taken seriously, it needs to look like a real book. So I’m getting the layout corrected and running another round of proofs. I suspect I’ll get the new proofs late next week. If those are OK, I will be able to open orders.

    I’ve been working with Austin from the OpenBSD group to get their ordering up soon.

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    January “SSH Mastery” sales, by the numbers

    I’ve promised several authors to share the results of my self-publishing experiment with SSH Mastery. I don’t have complete data yet, but I do have sales numbers for January from Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords.

    Some caveats here:

  • This includes only “SSH Mastery.” I have removed my fiction from the totals. (Fiction sales are considerably lower, but growing.)
  • February’s initial results are much lower than January’s. January’s sales are obviously to my “hard-core fans” and people close to the community.
  • My expenses aren’t yet totaled, as the print version isn’t available yet. I expect them to come in at roughly $3000. The majority of this expense is the class I took to learn how to self-pub properly, which is a one-time expenditure. A business person would argue that this expense doesn’t count, as it should be spread across multiple books. But as an author running a test project, I have to count this expense somewhere, so it’s attached to this book. Also, these expenses are only cash out of pocket; they assume my time is free.
  • On a related note, an accountant would probably find my reasoning naive. I already have two careers (writer and engineer), I’m not going to add a third.
  • I’m not going to regularly report sales numbers to the general public. I will say when I break even.

    • Before I published, I expected to make most of my sales through Amazon, then Barnes & Noble, and then Smashwords last. I had no idea of how many sales I would make, but I figured they’d be in that order. Let’s see how this compared to reality.

  • Amazon Kindle: 123 books sold (92 US, 12 UK, 14 DE, 2 FR, 1 IT, 2 ES), for a total of $810.27 USD at today’s exchange rates. (Amazon reports European royalties in euros or pounds.)
  • Barnes & Noble: 4 books sold, for $25.96 USD.
  • Smashwords: 76 books sold, for $607.65
  • Total: 202 books sold, for a total of $1443.88

    • Some interesting things here:

    I’m shocked at how low Barnes & Noble sales are. The book was available on B&N a couple days after Smashwords and Amazon, mainly because getting the book through B&N’s internal systems took longer. Apparently my readers don’t use the Nook.

    Smashwords sales as a proportion of total sales is much higher than I expected.

    Averaging the royalty per book is also interesting.

    Amazon: $6.58/sale
    Smashwords: $7.99/sale
    B&N: $6.49/sale

    You’ll hear lots of commentary about how Amazon offers a 70% royalty on ebooks. This has all sorts of exceptions and exclusions, where you’ll only get a 35% royalty. My effective average royalty at Amazon is about 65%, so that’s not bad.

    Barnes & Noble, at just under 65%, offers the worst net royalty.

    Smashwords: I love you. Just saying. My core audience really wants the book as PDF, and Smashwords offers PDF, epub, mobi, and all the other big ebook formats with one purchase. And they pay me the highest per-sale royalty. I still haven’t gotten the book through Meatgrinder into the other channels they feed, such as iBooks and Kobo. Once that happens, I expect to see their percentage rise. I wouldn’t be surprised if they overtake Amazon.

    The real lesson is: sell your work through all available channels. You can’t tell who will buy what from where.