Review of Business for Authors
You might think that a book about making money from your writing other than from royalties has nothing much to do with teaching Computing, but it definitely has, for a number of reasons.
First, despite all the nonsense about everything online should be free, selling your expertise via books and ebooks is an eminently sensible way of earning money, whether by teachers on behalf of their school, teachers on behalf of themselves, or by kids. (In my experience, the idea that everything online should be free is propagated by people who are comfortably salaried. Me, cynical? Perish the thought!). I think that despite the fact that currently the EU VAT law presents a major stumbling block. (See The hidden dangers of doing digital business: what schools, teachers and students need to know for that and other stumbling blocks.)
Second, if you accept the premise that writing and selling books is a good idea, then you ought to think about the practicalities involved and…
Third, you should think about how income might be earned from spin-off activities.
For example, if you decide to generate a bit of income for your school by writing and selling a guide to teaching Computing, perhaps you could enlist the assistance of a foreign language teacher to translate the book into French.
Fourth, I mentioned in passing that students could potentially earn money from selling ebooks online. Some students will be doing this, or thinking about doing this already, so it would be useful if either the Computing teachers or, in a secondary school, the Business Studies teachers were able to offer useful advice. That’s where this book comes in.
Although it wasn’t written for use by teachers, Business for Authors would definitely not be out of place in the school library (if your school still has one) or on the classroom bookshelf.
I’ve written a more in-depth review here: Review of Business for Authors: How to be an author entrepreneur, by Joanna Penn
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