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Dateol
October 20th, 2010, 10:55 AM
I'd like to buy a C++ book, one that will be used as a useful collection for perhaps ... throughout my programming life

But then I see in Amazon, there are just soooooo MANY of them. I wonder how much a writer can earn for a book he published at $49/item ?

I guess it may be $5/item as what he can get after a purchase is done
If he has 10 sales, he will have $50, but should 10 sales be done in a day :ehh: ? I doubt there are books that are never sold actually :(

Eri523
October 20th, 2010, 07:23 PM
If you're really looking for books on C++ (and I'm not really sure about that from your post), maybe this thread (http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=503669) could be interesting for you.

As to what you can earn by writing IT books: That depends... I can tell you some facts that I know about that business in Germany (although these facts may be not really current): The yield of a book can range from practically nothing (but these books are usually cheaper than $49) via some $100k (this is a really good selling one for about $49) up to $1M+ (a real top-seller, really rare). This is for the whole life-cycle of a book, maybe including more than one edition, of course.

A realistic amount you get per item (@ $49) is about $1 if you are the only writer (and you'll still have to pay tax for that). If it has been written by more than one person, that has to be shared among them of course. An author who has proven that he can write real top-sellers can possibly get more, but that also depends on his negotiation skills and is really rare.

I doubt there are books that are never sold actually

Oh, I suppose there actually are such books, but major publishers usually can estimate what will sell and what won't. So they most likely won't buy them and it's unlikely that you'll ever hear of them.

Just out of curiosity: Are you planning to write an IT book yourself? I suppose it would not be about C++, then... ;)

dglienna
October 20th, 2010, 10:14 PM
Most writers aren't in it for the money. They do what they LOVE, and if other people like it, good. If they buy it, even BETTER!

Brad Jones has written a few (good) books. Might have been C++ before C#. I forget

Dateol
October 21st, 2010, 06:33 AM
:) Thank you for your appeasement

AIDSman
October 23rd, 2010, 12:28 PM
How about book copy ? How can an author get sued to court for copycatting a passage from another book ?