Re:Ask HN: What are your profitable side projects?
by braythwayt on Sunday January 29, 2017 @12:19PM
(#13515205)
> I believe you need to create a book on leanpub for that, which now costs USD$99
Yes, that is a new "feature." However, IIRC, once you reach a certain threshold of royalties, the $99 is waived. So,if I were starting today, I still wouldn't pay it because my very first book would get me over the threshold.
Now I had the benefit of having written a blog, so I had material and an audience. But these are important things to have even if you don't pay $99 to publish a book.
If you want to write a book, or start a software side-project, it is enormously helpful to "prime the pump" by building your brand a little. Speak at conferences, write a blog, be a thoughtful contributor on social media sites where your eventual customers go for help.
If you do those things, you needn't worry about the $99 for your first book, or whatever fee some captive app market charges you, &c.
Bit of a chicken-and-egg problem, but online reputations can be built over time by plugging away, a little like gold-mining in MMORPGs...
Yes, that is a new "feature." However, IIRC, once you reach a certain threshold of royalties, the $99 is waived. So,if I were starting today, I still wouldn't pay it because my very first book would get me over the threshold.
Now I had the benefit of having written a blog, so I had material and an audience. But these are important things to have even if you don't pay $99 to publish a book.
If you want to write a book, or start a software side-project, it is enormously helpful to "prime the pump" by building your brand a little. Speak at conferences, write a blog, be a thoughtful contributor on social media sites where your eventual customers go for help.
If you do those things, you needn't worry about the $99 for your first book, or whatever fee some captive app market charges you, &c.
Bit of a chicken-and-egg problem, but online reputations can be built over time by plugging away, a little like gold-mining in MMORPGs...