Lots of people have been hitting the books lately. Not in the way you’d 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 recent years. My dad has actually self-published a book on trivia and general facts ala Cecil Adams.
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, who’ve transitioned into the world of print. Many bloggers now are going down this route.
That said, I’d like to introduce you to a few notable books by these publishers. The first is by Wise Bread, whom you’ll recognize for the book 10,001 Ways to Live Large on A Small Budget. 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.
Kim Palmer’s Generation Earn & Money Planner
I’d also like to mention Kim Palmer of Alpha Consumer (US News & World Report’s financial channel). She has a pretty good book that made the rounds of the blogosphere, which is aimed at younger professionals. It’s called Generation Earn: A Guide to Spending, Investing & Giving Back, and is something I quite enjoyed. It’s one of the few books I’ve actually had the opportunity to review on my site.
On this note, Kim has also developed a Money Planner that is meant to accompany her book. Check out her new Money Planner through this link, which aims to help you work out your financial plan with the help of templates and questions that she developed for this guide. It’s organized in the same manner as the Generation Earn book: it is divided into 3 sections, focusing on personal money strategies, financial strategies that impact you and your family, and topics on giving back, philanthropy and how you can make a difference in the world.
Other 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 successful bloggers turned writers whom I am familiar with:
#1 Mike Piper of Oblivious Investor has published several books on finance that aim to simplify some of the more math-oriented and technical money topics that exist, including taxes, investing, retirement and accounting. I like how he pegs all these books at 100 pages or less. Check out his offerings here.
#2 J.D. Roth, whom we mentioned earlier, is the blogger behind Get Rich Slowly and the book called Your Money, The Missing Manual. His book is quite easy to digest and is one I’ve also reviewed here.
#3 Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich has written a very popular book of the same name, which has sold like hotcakes. If you haven’t already, you can check his book out in Amazon.com and Scribd.
#4 Trent Hamm of The Simple Dollar is a prolific blogger and writer who has penned a couple of books. Check out 365 Ways To Live Cheap and Ways To Make Money If You Dare.
#5 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.
#6 Kerry Taylor, the foxy lady from Squawkfox has come up with 397 Ways To Save Money: Spend Smarter & Live Well on Less, which is only available for the Kindle. She has also written an ebook on Frugal Food and Fitness.
#7 Kay Bell of Don’t Mess With Taxes is a respected tax expert with a book called The Truth About Paying Fewer Taxes, which you can get in paperback or Kindle form.
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. 😉
Created April 23, 2009. Updated November 27, 2011. Copyright © 2011 The Digerati Life. All Rights Reserved.
{ 18 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. I’ve included your book in my list. 🙂
Oh no! My book’s release date is 5/1. One week too late! Hehe.
@ObliviousInvestor,
I’ve added your book to the list as well. Congrats on so many books completed!
“..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.
I’m hoping to one day cull all of the information I’ve learned and written about and compile it into a book. But, for now, I’ll settle for reading all of the other great information out there and use those published as inspiration for my goals!
Now it’s your turn :). Are you thinking about writing your own book? I’d buy one!
Hi Barbara!
Thanks for dropping by! Maybe some day — but that’s a lot of writing. It would be hard to juggle a book with online commitments, although a few talented folks have done it. How about you? 🙂 If anything, I would find it more comfortable to approach it like Mike Piper has, with a smaller book series; then again, I’m never known to be succinct.
Certainly, you can learn financial topics by reading up and using various financial references. I think it can even be better to use books than to rely on electronic learning techniques. I’m just wondering if the price is worth it!
I guess if you’re writing a blog it’s only natural to think about writing a book. In fact, I’m considering writing a book, although I’d probably just self-publish it.