I canceled my book deal

Somehow, I miss the time when I was writing a book. It's nice to do the work and research and also nice to refine. Getting money later without doing much anymore was also cool.

But my consecutive attempts of writing a book failed because of my ADHD and missing guidance. I can't do employment, but I really need someone to "nag" me 2-3 times a month to keep focus.

You're witnessing a collapse of demand. Do not ignore it - though it may not be permanent.

New meme:

[Earth] [Astronaut 1] [Astronaut 2 + Gun]

Astronaut 1 says nothing

Astronaut 2 says "More AI"

This sounds like my experience with a "major" technical publisher except we managed to get to the end.

I'd say that almost no one should work with the major technical publishers more than once. There's some good basic skills you learn but otherwise, they contribute very little that you couldn't get done on your own.

The such low royalties make folks seriously consider self-publishing if you think you can get any sales. (And if you do not need a copy-editor.)

So I have only around 150 sales of my book (see notes at https://andrewpwheeler.com/2024/07/02/some-notes-on-self-pub...). I make around ~$30 though net (average between on-demand print and epub). So my measly sales are about the same as the advance here (not clear if this was ever paid out, presume they would get it back if it was paid out).

If you really think you can sell thousands of copies the economics of it really should hit you.

I get going through a publisher will increase sales, but if you have a popular platform already to advertise it (like a blog or other popular social media), I just don't get it.

i wish you'd kickstart the same project and do it your way somehow

the publisher's interests were making it all worse

I read a good part of the OP.

I don't get why he went with a publisher despite the serious cons he listed up front.

The illustration is an extremely AI-generated book image with all the usual AI image generation mistakes (especially read the book spine). If people stop reading the article because they expect the text to be AI slop as well, I can understand why.

I'd definitely buy this book!

I killed a book deal I had for this book I mostly finished:

https://kevmo.io/zero-to-code/

I inked the deal in 2023, but shortly after felt like the market was too dead for newbies. When I initially removed the website for the book, I got a small wave of complaints, so I guess some folks still found it helpful.

"12% of total sales ..."

Me: That doesn't sound too bad! They keep 12% of the profit, leaving him 88%!

".. and then 15% [after that]"

This reminds me of the scene in Queen of the South. FL (female lead) is new to power, negotiating some deal.

Guy: How much?

FL: Unsure how much to take 10%.

Guy: Thinking her cut is only 10%, seeing her as weak Oh.. heh.

FL: Detects her mistake For you.

Guy: Face gets red, angry But.. but..

> There was also a daunting voice in the back of my head that LLMs have eliminated the need for books like this. Why buy this book when ChatGPT can generate the same style of tutorial for ANY project that is customized to you?

Why have sex with your wife when you can buy her a dildo?

Nice of them to transfer back the rights when they terminated the contract! I haven't heard of anyone not doing that, but it feels suspiciously not always a given if they have to specify explicitly.

Good for you.

> "All of our future books will involve AI."

What an incredible take. It is both so wrong on so many levels and also technically correct, akin to saying "All of our future books will involve spellchecker."

I hate it.

"All of our future books will involve AI."

I don’t see the publisher doing anything wrong.

You “froze” the contract instead of telling them you intended to stop all together and it also seems like you didn’t return their advance.

AI slop

paid stuff shouldnt be here, I thought this site as about sharing knowledge not selling it

Wow this is the first time I encountered this blog! Subscribed!