The most underrated business model for technical writers

Why writing a technical book alongside your Substack might be the best way to maximize your creativity while making your writing affordable and keeping your readers happy.

Photo by Dariusz Sankowski on Unsplash

Almost a year ago I decided to give the paid subscriptions a go, not because I thought I could make technical writing my day job - I already have like three of those, and I can't imagine not doing any of them. It was mostly for validation: to see if I could get anyone to care enough about my writing to be willing to pay something, not a lot, for it. And also, it couldn't hurt, right?

Long story short, it worked... somewhat. In terms of validation, I'm more than happy for my 68 paid subscribers. I couldn't imagine even a single person would be willing to support my writing. That bit of extra energy also helped motivate me to write more, and, I hope, a bit better.

However, in terms of affordability, technical writing still is, for me and probably for the 95% of my fellow writers at The Tech Writers Stack, little more than a hobby. And sometimes a rather expensive hobby. Many of you have deep expertise in areas where you could charge a substantial amount by the hour, and yet you choose to share that expertise for free.

And I get it, believe me. I also struggle with the dichotomy of wanting to share as much as possible to the widest audience I can with the reality of having too little time and too much work—like, real work, the one that pays the bill—to be able to give my Substack all the love I'd like to pour into it. So, over the past year I've tried different models to strike the right balance for doing something that I love—sharing some hard-earned lessons on sometimes pretty complex topics—in a way I can afford to.

On one extreme, I tried doing exclusive articles, but I found out some of my best writing was hiding in plain sight from the vast majority of my readers. Why write exclusively for 68 people when other 2000 are eager to read it? On the other extreme, I tried the patron-like support-me-if-you-can model, but of course, the vast majority of readers can't afford to support you, even if they wanted to. And to top it all, the subscription model seems to be on the decline—I know I have subscription fatigue, and probably you too.

But now I think I've found a sweet spot, and I want to tell you about it because I honestly think if it works for me, it'll work for many of you, probably even better than for me. The gist is this: write a technical book alongside your Substack, using free articles as the main material for content and the medium to drive sales.

How it works

Here is (just one way) how to do it. Pick a topic that you're reasonably knowledgeable and you think you'd enjoy writing consistently about. As an example, graph theory is one of those topics for me. Aim to write between 2 and 4 articles a month on that topic. Each article is published for free in your Substack and becomes a new chapter (or part of a larger chapter) in your in-progress book.

Now, here's the part no one tells you (or at least no one told me!) You don't have to wait for the book to be complete to sell it. On the contrary, set up a Gumroad account from day zero, and start pitching the book on each of your free articles.

And yes, some people will buy that crappy version 0.1, assuming it's an interesting topic! To sweeten the deal, I set a fairly low “early access” price compared to what a full technical book might cost. And I also offer other perks, such as a private Discord for early readers, a special shout-out in the acknowledgment section, stuff like that.

But mostly, the selling point is just the fact I'm writing this thing in public, incorporating early feedback. That, and the fact your readers are amazing and will do everything they can to support you. And this gives them something concrete, a one-time transaction that doesn't trigger our dread for another subscription.

It's so simple that it seems it can't work, but my early experiments say it works one order of magnitude better than paid subscriptions. Of course, your mileage may vary, but I've seen in little more than a month almost the same net profit from early book sales than a year of paid subscriptions.

I've completely changed my Substack business model in the last month. No more paywalled articles. With this model, I've been able to make all my content open and free, and still have something valuable enough that some readers are willing to pay for.

I still have subscriptions enabled on my Substack, though they have now become a free-ride ticket to all my current and future books. Readers who want to support all of my work, and can afford to, will still go for a traditional subscription. But those who can’t or simply don’t want to be attached to yet another subscription, have this alternative. It's a win-win

And besides all the advantages in terms of profitability, there's another way in which this pivot has positively impacted my writing and it's even more important: I'm more motivated than ever to write. Since all my writing is now public, I know I'll have as many eyes as I could wish for every article. And at the same time, I know I'm not writing exactly for free. Each article brings a trickle of new book sales, not enough to make a living out of it (yet) but enough to trick my primate dopamine-seeking brain.

But, but…

"But wait—I hear you ask—writing a book is supposed to be very hard!"

Yes, it is. It is harder than just writing a sequence of more or less interconnected articles. There is definitely extra work involved in writing, formatting, and setting up yet another platform (because why the hell Substack doesn't have that feature yet, right?).

But here is the thing. Writing is way harder than any of that, and you're already doing the bulk of it. The rest is not that much harder. If you can consistently pump one article every couple of weeks, believe me, you can write a technical book.

"Ok but, what if I don't write about a single, focused topic?"

I hear you, I'm writing not one but three distinct books on very different topics and for different audiences because I have many diverging interests. Perhaps you can find a subset of your articles that can be tied together into a coherent topic, like I did. Or perhaps variety is your thing! Maybe your book is about 20 weird, interesting things few people know (I’m looking at all you polymaths out there!)

"But—I hear you again—I just want to share my knowledge freely!"

I get it, and it's commendable, truly. If you can afford to, that is. But what I've found out is that more often than not even those who already are in a very stable financial position, eventually discover they can't write for free as much as they'd want to. There is a finite amount of time and so many things to do with it.

This is a way to make that free writing at least a bit self-supporting. But you can still make 100% of your content free. That's what I'm doing with my graphs book. Everything, including source code, is available for free online. The book is just a convenient packaging with some additional syrup and a couple of cherries on the top—if you can pardon the lousy metaphor.

The point is that you can adapt this model to your interests and values. You can make all or most of the content free, or you can make the book an extended version of your articles. The core of the idea is that 80% or more of the work is already done when you hit publish on Substack. And the remaining 20% could be enough to make the whole thing, if not profitable, at least affordable.

Some final words

Listen, I'm advocating strongly for this business model because I'm rooting for you. I truly believe the vast majority of you technical writers out there have what it takes to make a compelling book on your area of expertise. But I understand this is not for everyone. So here are some reasons why you might not want to do this.

First, it does take some extra effort. The hardest part is, as you might suspect, consistent writing. I waited for more than a year to make sure I'd found the workflow and rhythm that allowed to me write more or less consistently without the rest of my world breaking apart. If you're only a couple of months into technical writing, maybe it's better to wait until you've found your pace.

Second, it does put some extra pressure on you. Once you commit to a topic, you'll have to find a way to stay motivated to write about that same topic for over a year--or as long as it takes to finish the book. You can take some rest here and there, of course. But once you have people paying in advance for something you'll deliver in the near future, some pressure will inevitably build up.

And finally, we all know once a hobby becomes a job, it stops being fun. And there is the risk this model turns your otherwise pleasurable moments of exploration into yet another thing you have to do, instead of a thing you want to do. I don't have any magic potions to fight that, but I've found keeping a healthy variety of topics to write about lets me procrastinate from one while investing in another topic, tricking my primate brain into thinking this is not work.

But all in all, I think this is one of the most underrated business models for technical writers, and there has never been a better time to do it. You have the technology, the platform, and now a community of like-minded writers to support you and help you stay motivated, and sometimes kick you in the butt if we must. Please go ahead and give this idea at least a fair chance, you'd be surprised how much you can enjoy it.

And if you are interested in actually doing this, we at The Tech Writers Stack are building a community of writers to help each other. We proofread each other's works and share tricks and tools, and some of us have become full-time collaborators. Join us now and let's kickstart your indie tech writing career together.

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PS: If there is enough interest, I'm happy to share a few more technical articles on my actual process, from the tools I use to the workflows I follow. Leave a comment if that sounds enticing to you.