Dave's super electronics book - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: peterthenovice
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 12:17:59 am
content: Dave have you considered writing a book from your tutorial videos. i love your videos , but some like that hard to find information in written context.

author: PeterG
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 12:24:05 am
content: Top idea. I'd buy it in a second.Regards

author: xrunner
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 12:25:07 am
content: Quote from: peterthenovice on April 15, 2013, 12:17:59 amWouldn't he just take it apart when it was finished?

author: peterthenovice
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 12:59:50 am
content: maybe the man himself can calibrate with collin and doug

author: peterthenovice
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 01:25:39 am
content: maybe the same size as the makers notebook. this one could be orange

author: lemmegraphdat
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 03:05:59 am
content: Does not sound fun to do.

author: peterthenovice
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 03:07:44 am
content: Quote from: lemmegraphdat on April 15, 2013, 03:05:59 amhard work pays off

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 06:55:28 am
content: Writing a book takes a massive amount of time and effort. At least a years worth.A technical book is even more work again.If you do it for the money, you are a fool, 99.9% of authors never get a return on their time investment. You have to do it for the love of it.I have an open invitation from No Starch Press to write one or more books if I so wish.But it's a simple matter of doing the math:I'd get around 15% of the RRP price (forget the exact figure) if I went through a publisher.Lets say the book costs $40 (a high end for No Starch), then I get $6 from each book, likely less.Lets also say it sells 10,000 copies (not a bad minimum estimate I guess based on my audience + no starch promotion)That's $60K which sounds like a lot. But how much is my time worth if it takes at least a year to write, likely more?Perhaps John Boxall wants to jump in and comment, he's done it:http://nostarch.com/arduinoSo yes, I have considered it (many times in fact over the last 15 years) but I think these days I'd rather put my time and effort into the area of paid video tutorials or some such.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 07:11:29 am
content: Quote from: peterthenovice on April 15, 2013, 03:07:44 amFor books, no, it doesn't most of the time.BTW, Jon Oxer (Freetronics) has some old videos on book publishing:

author: Balaur
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 07:53:00 am
content: I wrote a ~50 pages chapter in a ~350 pages book published at Springer.It's a highly specialized work, rather expensive (>$200) and while quite successful in its field, there was never an expectation of profitability. I don't think that any of the individual authors were expecting some money back. I've contributed to the book as it is relevant for my research field, I pretend to have some things to say and to be honest for fame and fortuneIt took a huge effort from the 10+ authors and the editor to prepare the content and more than that to end up with the published version (final form, proofreading, ... all done by Springer). All this for a rather specialized subject. A general book on electronics is a huge undertake. I would not recommend this even to my worst enemy.The kicker is that it is if you want to buy the book and let's say you search on Google, the first results page already contains links to the pirated version, with the download just a click away.

author: johnboxall
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 08:00:16 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on April 15, 2013, 06:55:28 amYeah, you write a book for the fun of it, not as an earner. But now I can say "Hey, I've got a book".Don't forget tax on the royalties in the US, losses due to exchange rate (contracts are in US$) and tax on the royalties locally.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 08:26:26 am
content: Quote from: tronixstuff on April 15, 2013, 08:00:16 amThat's the only benefit you can realistically expect.QuoteDeath, taxes, and stupid Youtube commentsI think I did a thread on this before with calcs, and IIRC, I think the book would have to sell in the order 50,000 copies for it to be worth my while financially to consider this.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 08:29:29 am
content: Quote from: Balaur on April 15, 2013, 07:53:00 amYes, it's crazy to even try I think.If I did write a general electronics book, it wouldn't be one. I think it would be many, and they would be small, broken down and focus on one thing each.The PCB design book I've been considering for something like 6-7 years now just gets bigger and bigger the more I think about it.

author: jmole
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 08:33:22 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on April 15, 2013, 08:26:26 amWith the audience you have, self publishing seems like a pretty viable option to me. I'd pay $20 for a decent ebook, and more for a hard copy.Hell, don't even bother with the traditional publishing model, just write a chapter at a time and sell the chapters for $5 a pop. Once you've got the book assembled, put it up for $30 or so. Doing a chapter at a time limits your overall risk and investment, and could give you a better idea of the market.

author: eevblogfan
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 08:51:21 am
content: heywhy don't you do something like App note ?you may ask for something like 1$ in order to download it ( paypal payment )I think you'll have a lot of benefit . over 10K$ per one note , over 12 notes per year , it's over 120K$ per year just from that , about 3 weekly Hrs of time to invest , I am sure you can do it !and I'd love to read thous "App notes "you may open smartphones's app just for that , and ask for 1$ per month or so , it's well pay off and I am sure we all benefit from thatCheers

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 09:16:08 am
content: Quote from: eevblogfan on April 15, 2013, 08:51:21 am3 hours to write a good app note?But yeah, this is something I really want to get into, small video (because that's my thing, and what my audience like) paid content, or it could certainly be a document/app note/mini book chapter as suggested.If the cost is small enough, people generally don't mind paying for it, and also don't expect the world from it.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 09:17:23 am
content: Quote from: eevblogfan on April 15, 2013, 08:51:21 amBTW, Paypal take a least 30 percent of that $1

author: eevblogfan
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 09:41:24 am
content: I am aware of the paypal percentummm nope . I thought about a small chapters . something like 1~3 pages depending on subjectsomething light weight , you'll know what is the time needed for any of thous app note , and yup , as you can see I am not really into that enough in order to estimate the time needed for writing that app note ...

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 11:33:44 am
content: Quote from: eevblogfan on April 15, 2013, 09:41:24 amAs a guide, I'm about to write a text blog post on my new editing PC. I'll work at my normal pace and actually time it.As a general rule, it takes a few hours just to write a good blog post, ask any good text blogger. Although I guess some are much more efficient than others.

author: peterthenovice
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 11:58:46 am
content: Dave I was thinking it would be nice to have text along with the videos.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 02:29:03 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on April 15, 2013, 11:33:44 amIt's up!That blog post took me2 hours and 15 minutesto write and post!Hope that gives people some idea how long these things really take.

author: eevblogfan
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 05:41:51 pm
content: hey Davenice writing , although that log didn't helped me with my own interest . I did like to read that one , nice long and goodI thank you A-lot for your job and the contribution you are amazing guy !

author: lemmegraphdat
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2013, 11:08:21 pm
content: Maybe books need to include paid advertising on about all of the pages, like magazines do.

author: smashedProton
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2013, 01:37:01 am
content: NO! Too many things have advertizing Please don't give anyone any bright ideas.

author: peterthenovice
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2013, 03:18:01 am
content: Quote from: lemmegraphdat on April 15, 2013, 11:08:21 pmwatch dave's interview with collin mitchell

author: codeboy2k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2013, 06:58:48 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on April 15, 2013, 02:29:03 pmSome of my postings to your forum have taken me over an hour to write; I often research my postings to be sure I am not saying anything stupid, and if I have any math to do offline it adds time, or if I put the math into the posting using latex, or a mathcad sheet, or if I create schematics and add it to the post. ...I haven't read your blog post yet, but I will.

author: eevblogfan
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2013, 07:12:59 am
content: hey daveyour post was probebly the right length I was thinking about . and I gave you 3 Hrs ! so you did it with 45 min less ! good job

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 16, 2013, 07:24:15 am
content: Quote from: eevblogfan on April 16, 2013, 07:12:59 amYeah, but it's not really technical material like I think you were intending.Throw in a few diagrams you have to do, research, checking, formatting, etc, and that same length article in terms of an "app note" or whatever blows out into a day's job or more. A small well written app note could easily take you a week to write and edit.

author: eevblogfan
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2013, 07:37:03 am
content: heyyup I am aware that APP note is different , much different , it should somehow guide you and it should be very precise and comprehensive , plus the time to think and find data on the net and perhaps even plotting some diagrams in open office / excel or such , and hell lot of work , but say you work one hour A day for processing and concluding editing and such , perhaps within 12 days you'll be able to post the app not , arn't you ?and 1$ per app note ( 12 Hrs or perhaps even 40 , I really don't know ) I'll kindly pay 5$ or even more for good app note per month even . good app note is something good to invest , and the data and experience stored in your little skull is gold worth , please shear with us the goldy metirialkeep on the great job dave ! I really appreciate that !CHeers !

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 16, 2013, 08:19:05 am
content: Quote from: eevblogfan on April 16, 2013, 07:37:03 amNo, I'm saying it will be much more than say 12 hours work. Closer to that 40 hours you mentioned. Try one a month and you might be on target.QuoteSure, but how many others would when there are countless app notes out there for free?Is my time better spent designing hardware/kits that I can sell instead of content?

author: eevblogfan
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2013, 08:28:52 am
content: heyI'd like you to design multy channel perhaps 40~60W no more , and goood linear design , power supply , not just as a kit but following videos of the entier design ,the countless upp note won't match the writing you do , you have got good writing and good content , plus the content might be related into your own projects and hence will be comprehensive in that regard that no other app note can accomplish ,and when would you do some controllers and micros ? I'd like to see some control loop being desings and processesd by youCheers !

author: smashedProton
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2013, 02:26:58 pm
content: We should all give Dave more time. .