[HN Gopher] Tell HN: My early access eBook over iOS made $120k i...
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Tell HN: My early access eBook over iOS made $120k in 1 year
Hey HN - I mostly stay in the shadows here, but for the one year
anniversary of my first (ebook project)[1] I figured I'd write a
blurb in case it's interesting to anyone. I'm terrible at
launching things, and take years to ship my own apps. After my last
app was acquired, I wanted to fulfill a "moon shot" goal of mine -
write a book in any form. I settled on adapting one of my more
popular [blog posts][2] that I keep updated through each version of
iOS into a five book series (one for each topic of accessibility,
design, UX, APIs and a catch all bonus one). So far it has sold
1,534 copies and has made over $124,000. Now that things have
settled, it makes about $2k a month on average. I learned from my
own launch history and decide to launch it in "early access",
otherwise I'd never finish it. Launching it went great and was a
day I'll never forget, as to that point - I had never made close to
that much money in one day. CONS: It's not all rainbows and
sunshine though. I used to read posts like this and my heart rate
would shoot up, thinking "What the heck - I could do that too!" and
make some good money. While it is true that the project has been
great for me financially (I have a stay at home wife and three
kids), honestly life is not any different. I just save most of it,
spend it on the 1,000 school activities my kids have or whatever
life throws at me. I didn't make any splurge purchase. I've also
realized the real, grating reality of opportunity cost. At the one
year mark, this book series is only half way done. I can't put into
words how much I miss making software, because now - all I do is
write. That has been my main takeaway through all of this - your
time is valuable, and I cosigned a ton of mine away the moment I
decided to embark on this. PROS: On the positive side, I get
messages from people starting out on iOS and veterans alike who are
really enjoying the books. It's hard to put into words how
motivating that is, to fell like you are doing a tiny little thing
that somewhat matters to some people. I also love teaching and
writing, so the project does appeal to me - but I've learned I need
a better balance. When I shipped apps, all I wanted to do was
write. Now, the opposite is true. Anyways, if you are considering
launching a digital downloads type of product, I'd say go for it.
Tech-wise, it was trivial to get started: Gumroad for sales
Netlify for deploys Made the site from scratch using Tailwind
Ulysses to write I think in a world where there is a lot of
"grifting" going on with courses, ebooks, etc - you can actually
stand out if you stick to your word and show authenticity. For
example, I promised updates every two weeks - and I've stuck to
that, a year in. TL'DR: Launching your own thing and making money
is neat, but at the end of the day life doesn't really change at
all. Consider your time investments. Try to truly help people.
Happy to answer any questions if you have any. [1]:
https://www.bestinclassiosapp.com [2]:
https://www.swiftjectivec.com/a-best-in-class-app/
Author : jordanmorgan10
Score : 52 points
Date : 2022-05-27 21:13 UTC (1 hours ago)
| sliq wrote:
| Extremely interesting! I'm really curious to see your process.
| Congrats mate, you're a selfmade man/woman!
| jordanmorgan10 wrote:
| Thank you! I wrote a lot about the nitty gritty in terms of
| process here if you're interested in that:
| https://www.swiftjectivec.com/the-best-in-class-book-beta-la...
| barry-cotter wrote:
| Congratulations. Does this actually make financial sense, for
| you? If you can write those books you could be consulting for a
| lot more than $2,000 a week, couldn't you? How have you been
| marketing it? If you're doing a lot less programming how are you
| making sure your advice is the latest and greatest?
| jordanmorgan10 wrote:
| Well financially speaking - it's just icing on the cake,
| because I have a full time at job as an iOS developer at
| Buffer. We have four day work weeks, which has been huge in
| making any of this possible.
|
| Marketing it mainly just through Twitter. I have written about
| iOS development for a long time, so I had somewhat of a small
| but established presence in that community. I've also done paid
| ads, sponsored podcasts and newsletters. Podcast sponsorships
| seem to have performed the best.
|
| In terms of keeping fresh, that's a great thought - but I
| because I spend so much time researching, reading docs,
| watching WWDC sessions, I feel more sharp than ever. I'm just
| aching a bit inside not being able to apply those lessons to my
| _own_ apps. Once I finish the first version of all five books,
| I should be able to restore some balance there...I hope!
| KerrAvon wrote:
| This is interesting in that it also demonstrates a strong market
| for really solid, up-to-date iOS developer documentation. The TOC
| indicates a really deep, modern approach, which I would
| appreciate if I were in the market. And leading with
| accessibility is a striking choice.
| jordanmorgan10 wrote:
| As a platform, iOS has absolutely incredible accessibility
| APIs. I thought it was a great place to begin because a lot of
| developers I've met are somewhat intimidated by accessibility
| programming, but there is a lot of low hanging fruit one can do
| to make their app accessible. From there, then you can deep
| dive. Also, thank you for checking it out!
| mathverse wrote:
| Inspiring. Do you agree with the saying "build it and they will
| come?"
| jordanmorgan10 wrote:
| ...kiiiiiind of?
|
| The thing is, I've made a lot of things that didn't jack crap.
| I launched four apps before I made one that mattered. I wrote
| on my blog for nearly a decade before I could launch a book
| that I sold.
|
| But on the other hand, I know several indies who hit it right
| out of the park. It's so hard to say. It's part marketing,
| knowing where your audience is, making something actually good
| and then luck. I think that there is an art to all of this, but
| having been on both side of the fence, I think dumb luck does
| factor in.
|
| Also, quick story - an app I made in 2012ish, I thought for
| sure was gonna do great! It was a Christmas list app, and I
| launched it in November. I woke up the next day and I saw...one
| sale. Later that day, I found out it was my boss' daughter who
| bought it. Haha, so, you never know!
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