On writing software and fiction

I have written a huge pile of software in my life, but also a load of technical documents, often software documentation. I always enjoyed working with both and even more so when they were free.

Just a few years ago, I started writing fiction. While short stories were just for entertainment, and nobody ever thought otherwise, as soon as I worked on a novel, there was a single question asked by everybody, including me: Will I ever be able to publish it and make money from it?

The first odd thing is how tightly connected both parts of the question appear to be, but actually they are not even related. Yet, it took me a while to recognize that. So let’s start with the first question: What does publishing a book mean and will I be able to do that?

What is a book? The Landespressegesetz (LPresseG) of the German state NRW defines that as a printed creation suitable for mass publication. Guessing, it is the same for other states. It is beyond me why that is not a national law, but I guess it pays some bureaucratic bums.

How about an e-book? An e-book, if published, is considered to be a digital service, covered by the Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (DDG). Which sucks, because said service is typically only licensed, not sold, so you don’t own the copy. Differentiating information by carrier is plain stupid, but that’s the German law for you. Yet, despite supposedly being a digital service, unlike other digital services, e-books must be transmitted to the national library just like reference copies of physical books.

What is a publication? §2 and §6 Urheberrechtsgesetz say: Making a personal intellectual creation in the fields of literature, science and art available to the public. There is no mention of money.

The DDG states that digital services need an imprint. Unless, which is not clearly spelled out, they are strictly published for private purposes. Which resembles the Landespressegesetz (LPresseG) requirement of an imprint for books, unless published privately without the intention to make money.

Okay. I get it. If lawyers ever wrote code, it would be a distributed monolith with odd or missing dependencies.

So, that’s the definition of books, e-books and publication. Will I be able to publish my novel?

Yes, absolutely. Legally quite easy as an e-book, without any requirements as long as I don’t make money of it. Not quite so easy in physical form, as manufacturing does cost money, so someone needs to pay somewhere, and I had to prove not to make any money on it. And even harder, not intending to make money. How do you prove an intention? Then there are some mind-blowing tax implications as soon as money and art are involved.

Will I be able to make money from it? Why do I ask that for a novel and why don’t I ask that for writing free software?

For a physical book, I kind of get it: Because publication does cost money. Software, not being physical, only costs effort. That somehow resembles the distribution of free software on physical media, except that software distribution on media is mostly a thing of the past, whereas a physical book still has a value of its own.

For an e-book, things are complicated. Leaving a handful of people like Linus Torvalds aside, people getting wealthy from free software is pretty much unheard of, but there are quite a few examples of previously unknown authors having accomplished that with a book. It is unlikely, but would I want to ruin the chance?

That’s where Andy Weir opened my mind. His book “The Martian” was originally free, because he did not consider himself to be a bestseller author. Then he published it on Amazon KDP for 99 cents, not to make money, but because that was the lowest price allowed and it enabled people reading it with a Kindle, or to donate money to him after reading the free version. It did not hinder his success. It actually helped.

Treating an e-book like free software does not prohibit to make money from it, if it becomes popular. Of course the free copies would always float around, but so will illegal copies of a commercial book. Sure, some publishers are not keen about previous publication, but before being successful they would not talk to me anyway and afterwards nobody cares any more. Previous free publication also serves to protect against stealing authorship.

Will I ever be able to publish it and make money from it? Yes, to both questions.

Will I ever actually make money from it? Unlikely. Even if it was the greatest book ever, without a promotion budget or a huge amount of already existing followers advertising it, it disappears in between millions of other books.

When I write software, I do it for fun, and writing a novel is just the same. I am convinced of free software. Legally, I am allowed to treat a book just the same. That does not come naturally in Germany, because the German constitution does not guarantee free speech and sharing of information, see

The first publication will be electronic only to avoid said tax implications in Germany. A physical publication including cover art has to wait until emigration. Likely I will publish chapter by chapter for beta readers this year, but the details are not decided yet.

For the curious, the novel will be in German. Here is the translated abstract of “Die Mitte des Dorfes”:

Sari worked for a tech company. In an environment of strict security measures, they built a system of connected employee brains for solving problems that could not be described algorithmically. After an accident, Sari got nightmares and a distorted sense of reality.

Surprisingly, an old friend passed away. Part of his last will was the visit of an indigenous tribe in the rain forest, where he worked last. After the evening in the village she woke up with a pounding headache, the memory of a talk to the soul of her dead friend, a tattoo and the question of her true identity. She had the desire to learn more about the tribe’s answers to existential questions. But most importantly, she wanted to save the people, she felt so close to after the evening, from the threatening destruction of their living space, which her employer was part of.