Lots of people have been hitting the books lately. Not in the way you expect though. I meant that many people I know both online and off have been participating in some exciting projects, and have decided to become published authors.
Everyone’s A Writer: A Family of Authors?
Here’s what I mean. In my family alone, I have TWO people who have written books in the last year. My dad is working on self-publishing a book on trivia and general facts ala Cecil Adams. We just received some samples from the publisher and it looks really good. Now, the question is — will it sell? We shall see.
Another close family member has been circulating his “racy” novel online. He’s still working on how to monetize it but it’s been getting some front page action on Scribd.com. It’s a novel about Silicon Valley and wealth, and how money can corrupt. Now where better to mention this book than in our own blog about Silicon Valley and money, but unlike the book, we give the subject of money a much more positive shake.
I have to say that this book I’m referencing is a little shocker of a novel, and contains graphic imagery and strong language, so download at your own risk (or desire) 
. It’s called “The Peninsula” (as in, the Bay Area peninsula). Here are some colorful snippets:
What’s important is that my bloodline shimmers with a million shares of Oracle, Intel, Sun, and Google, and that they open every door in California. Those were the companies his children started, but my father is dead three years, and his fortune is in the hands of Michael Medine.
….I learned early on that the effect of wealth is apathy, particularly towards women, towards sex — and this apathy, which paralyzed the defendant, also paralyzes me.
….I am twenty-one and a senior at Stanford University, where with all my peers I worship technology and depucelate as many virgins as passes the time.
Okay….? I don’t know many twenty one year olds who speak or write like that, but hey, the protagonist attends Stanford University!
Wise Bread’s “10,001 Ways To Live Large On A Small Budget”
As for the personal finance space, there have been a few published authors who have emerged from the world of blogging. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how successful some bloggers have been going down this route.
That said, I’d like to give you a heads up on Wise Bread’s 10,001 Ways to Live Large on A Small Budget whose launch date is sometime in May. I was truly impressed by the Wise Bread team for putting together these neat pages dedicated to the book, which also nicely acknowledges the authors who contributed to the content you’ll find in this package. The book is a collection of tips and tricks from Wise Bread’s site and also contains articles from other prominent bloggers like J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly and Trent Hamm of The Simple Dollar.
And since I write for Wise Bread, I was fortunate to find myself in their author list along with other names in the blogosphere. Congrats to Wise Bread on this project! I’m planning to review this book in more detail when it formally launches.
Bestselling Books By PF Bloggers
If that isn’t enough, you must also check out these awesome books by popular bloggers — among them are several bestsellers! A lot of people have been pretty busy. Some notable and successful bloggers turned writers whom I am familiar with:
Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich has written a very popular book of the same name, which is selling like hotcakes. If you haven’t already, you can check his book out in Amazon and Scribd.
Trent Hamm of The Simple Dollar penned a couple of books that were published over the last few months. Check out 365 Ways To Live Cheap and Ways To Make Money If You Dare.
Sharon Harvey Rosenberg of The Frugal Duchess wrote a finance book called How To Live Well and Save Money that is also autobiographical in many respects. I’m a huge fan of Sharon’s writing and I count this frugal memoir as one of my favorites in my finance library.
And there are many others who have come up with e-books galore: for instance, the foxy lady from SquawkFox came up with this ebook on Frugal Food and Fitness. I’m sure there are many more wonderful pieces of work out there, so if I missed anyone (my apologies), please let me know about what you’ve published!
So who else is out there ready to pen a book? I imagined traversing this path myself someday, but ultimately, I’m not seriously contemplating it. Then again, I’ve been threatening to come up with a tell all book about the financial blogosphere that will divulge everyone’s secrets. Mwahahaha!
Personal Financial Articles
- Loose Change: Crunching Some New Numbers on Retirement Savings
- Free Money Finance: Save Money by Finding a Knowledgeable and Fair Sales Person
- Five Cent Nickel: You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself: Debt Collection Via Embarrassment
- Lazy Man and Money: Need Money Epic Fail
- The Sun’s Financial Diary: Index Mutual Funds Are Still Not Popular, But
- Brip Blap: Why I Spend
- My Dollar Plan: 16 Second Quarter Financial Tips
Recent Carnivals
- Carnival of Debt Reduction: Thanks to Mary from SimplyForties for designating our post about Priceline’s Name That Price option as an Editor’s Pick!
- Carnival of Personal Finance
- Carnival of Pecuniary Delights
- Festival of Frugality: OUCH!
- Stock trades: Free stock trades from Zecco, Cheap stock trades from TradeKing, Stock news and Investment info at INO TV Free, No cost Trend Analysis for stocks
- Earn top returns: FNBO Direct [1.90%], HSBC Direct [1.65%], WTDirect [1.76%], E*Trade Bank [0.95%], ING Direct [.25% to 1.65%]
- Cash bonus: Discover More [$50], American Express [$25], Lending Club [$25]
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Kudos to the Wise Bread groups and all other book authors.
My publisher will kill me if I don’t plug my book here: The Truth About Paying Fewer Taxes (FTPress, February 2009) http://budurl.com/ksje
Not directly from my tax blogging, but that helped me get the deal and are prominently noted on the book cover.
Hi Kay,
Awesome!
I shall check your book out! Great to know that we’ve got all the finance niches covered here.
Oh no! My book’s release date is 5/1. One week too late! Hehe.
Good roundup. I found that FCN article about debt collection through public shaming absolutely fascinating.
“..but my father is dead three years” is semantically incorrect and the 21 year-old Stanford student should know that. But I like his French expression “depucelate”, a word that Merriam-Webster fails to recognize and that was amply utilized during the French Middle Ages as a unalienable right by the local lord (droit de cuissage in French) to be the first to “sleep” with the local virgins when they got married. Where the young man got the word from I’d like to know.
As for would be authors, breaking through is enormously difficult due to the sheer amount of would be “Stephen Kings.” But the e-books industry gives all of us a glimmer of hope to be read.
Jacques,
Love to hear more about English language usage. I guess this is why, if you are going to be an author, you need an editor! Although for the life of me, I recall reading lots of classics in college that sound just like this (sentence structure rearranged unusually and all that)…
But I agree Jacques, that many people do fancy themselves as the next bestselling author and thrill in thinking how they could be the breakout author. And hey, some people actually do (after all, J.K. Rowling had to start somewhere).
That word is from Sade’s 120 Days.
Semantics should be taken with a grain of salt when composing for prosody, otherwise poets would have a hard time. Besides, they don’t teach you that sort of thing at Stanford.
How about ebooks? Shameless self promotion, but check out Automatic Finances: 17 Days to Your Financial Freedom.
Well, modern use of English tells us that the simple present is incorrect for an action in the past, which means it should say “has been dead for 3 years” , using the present perfect tense to express a fact that occurred in the past but is still in our minds.
DL states that they don’t teach you grammar at Stanford, but I want to believe that they require an excellent knowledge of the English language, for if one can’t express ideas clearly, one cannot be successful as a professional with a college degree.
As for ebooks, Jason, do not feel bad
) I am sure SVB is more than happy to let you plug your ebook on this blog (am I right?)
I would LOVE love LOVE to see a book on all our PF blogging secrets! boy, that sure would cause some excellent trouble
Hey SVB! Thanks so much for the eBook mention! I also have a published book coming out in May – it’s based on my blog.
Squawkfox, I checked your blog with the resume samples; it is awesome as you are performing a much needed public service for all these laid-off people. Otherwise they would have to fork over a good amount of cash to obtain the same from paying sites. A fox that squawks, there is a new type of species
)
Interesting article on all the authors and their books. I don’t write about finances but, my book is titled, Inside The Soul Of A Woman, and can be found at publishamerica.com or amazon.com. It is a unique book of poetry about my family and my son’s injury and the struggles we faced when we learned he would never walk again, the search for happiness and love. A book definately from the heart of a woman. And since I am plugging my book here, I want to mention that every book sold, a percentage will be donated to the childrens hospital that cared for him and their nuerological dept. for spinal cord research.
Thank you for allowing me this opportunity.