How to become an Author

I have been asked many times if it is worth writing a technical book. How much money do I make? What is the process of getting a book published? This article talks about the entire process of writing a technical book including how to start and what it takes to make it a successful book.

Do you have what it takes to write a successful book?

You do not have to be a GURU to write a book. However, you must be an expert on the topic you plan write about. If you know what is already in MSDN and other documentation then forget about writing. You must know more than what is out there.

Don't let my previous sentence discourage you. It only takes some extra effort and research to become an expert on a topic. If you are willing to spend enough time, you will be alright.

Choose a Topic

When you choose a topic, you must be specific about the topic. For example, if you want to write a book related to database programming using C# programming language using Visual Studio 2008, you need to be specific with the title. Your book title should be "Database Programming using C# 2008".

So now you have found a topic which you would like to write about. Next step is to find a publisher.

Finding a Publisher

Finding a publisher is pretty simple. APress, Addison Wesley, Microsoft, and Wrox are a few big names in technical publishing world. You go to their websites and they all have "Write for Us" or "Contact Us" links to contact them.

Before you contact a publisher, you must be ready with some material. Most of the publishers expect you to send them a detailed table of contents and a sample chapter of the book. This material gives publisher an idea about your writing skills and styles and how much do you know about that topic.

Once your proposal is accepted by a publisher, the next step is to negotiate a contract. Most of the publishers pay you between 10 – 15% of royalties on net sale. Some publisher may also give you an advance to encourage you to jump on the train right away.

The Writing Process

Once your contents are ready, publisher helps you with the technical editing, copy edit, and final production version of the contents. Publisher sends you a template (usually a Microsoft Word document with formatting and styles), image capturing, code formatting, and other photos.

How long does it take to write a book?

Before I can answer this, you need to ask yourself these following questions.

• How good are you at the topic you are writing about?
• How much time you are willing to spend each day?
• Do you need research on the topic?
• What level of user you are targeting – beginner, intermediate, or expert?

In essence, it all depends on you and your skill level.

It took me an average from 9 months to 15 months to write a book. My first book too me more than a year and last book took me about 9 months to finish. You get the idea.

How much money will I make?

The question most people have on their minds is, how much money do you really make from a book? Well, it actually depends. It depends on how successful your book is. If you are authoring your first book and you are not a popular in the developer community, chances are your book will be an average book.

For an average book, a publisher expects to sell between 5000 to 10,000 copies over first couple of years.  An average technical book price is $45 and a publisher expects to get between 40 to 50% of the sale price.  So a publisher actually gets $20 per book. As an author, an average 10% royalties is an average rate. So you actually make $2.00 per book. After selling 5000 copies of the book, you will make about $10,000 from a book.

So now here comes a question for you. Are you looking for a fame or money from a book? If you are going after the money, considering the amount of time you put writing a technical book, it is not worth your time. You would rather make $10,000 by working for couple of weeks at rate of $100 per hour. If you are looking for fame and name recognition, authoring a good book perhaps is not a bad idea.

Work after publishing

Once your book is published, your work is not done yet. If you want to make the book a successful book, then you need to work on promotions. Mention book in your blogs and on your websites or the websites you visit often. DO NOT talk about your book on unwanted forums. It will be considered as SPAM and will give you a bad publicity.

Online communities are one the best way to promote a book. You may go to several online communities such as C# Corner, Code Project, Code Guru, and DevX and most of them allow you to public a free chapter from your book. In your chapter, do not forget to mention the link of the book. Also become a regular author on these websites and at the bottom of your article, you may want to mention your book. This will give you a market larger than 10 million developers.

Regularly visit forums such as C# Corner Forums and Microsoft forums and reply posts that are related to the topics your book covers. Answer the questions and also mention to go to your book page to get more details on that specific topic.

If you do not have a blog, start a blog. Remember, do not SPAM. You may publish small tips or articles from your book and mention your book at the bottom of the blog. Do not over do it. Do not post the entire book photo on the blog. That may not look too good.