2023: year in perspective

TL;DR: Updated six programming ebooks, created four interactive TUI apps for exercises, wrote blog posts, recorded YouTube videos, newsletter prospered, read 100+ novels, and so on. Had a great year in terms of ebook sales despite worries over AI tools 😇

Books updated🔗

This year I focused on updating my existing ebooks instead of working on a new one. I managed to revise 6 out of my 13 published works so far. Examples and exercises were added and improved. Typos were corrected, sections added for new features (if any), new book covers, promo videos and so on.

Understanding Python re(gex)? — Learn Python Regular Expressions step-by-step from beginner to advanced levels with 300+ examples
CLI text processing with GNU grep and ripgrep — Example based guide to mastering GNU grep and ripgrep
CLI text processing with GNU sed — Example based guide to mastering GNU sed
CLI text processing with GNU awk — Example based guide to mastering GNU awk one-liners
Perl One-Liners Guide — Example based guide for text processing with Perl from the command line
Understanding JavaScript RegExp — Learn JavaScript Regular Expressions step-by-step from beginner to advanced levels with hundreds of examples and exercises

TUI apps🔗

Last year, I had learned a bit of Textual. My aim was to create interactive apps for practicing exercises from my ebooks. I wrote the following apps:

Python re(gex)? exercises — 100+ exercises for Python Regular Expressions
- Python re(gex)? playground — interactive playground, also includes a cheatsheet
Grep Exercises — 50+ exercises for GNU grep (or alternate implementations like ripgrep)
Sed Exercises — 50+ exercises for GNU sed
Awk Exercises — 80+ exercises for GNU awk

And I also added more exercises for the Linux CLI Text Processing Exercises app.

Blog posts🔗

Most of my blog posts this year were related to book and interactive app announcements. So, not really a choice to pick favorites from:

I also posted some weekly programming tips (Python, Linux, Vim).

Book sales🔗

Revenue from ebook sales were about 10% lower than last year. At the start of the year, I'd have been satisfied even if it had been 50% lower. I wasn't writing new ebooks and AI tools were all the rage on social media. Somehow, I got lucky with self-promotion posts for my GNU awk ebook and the rest of the months weren't too shabby. Here's my Gumroad revenue chart for 2023:

Gumroad sales in 2023

You can clearly see when the GNU awk ebook was updated. Sales on Gumroad was actually just a bit higher than last year. It was on Leanpub that sales were much lower, almost half compared to last year. Profits reduced more than 10% since Gumroad increased their fees. Overall, I'm still earning more than I need and I'm hoping that next year wouldn't see too much drop in sales.

I started a newsletter, learnbyexample weekly, two years back. I've managed to send an email every Friday without fail so far and I'm proud of that. Sometimes I had to schedule issues weeks ahead. Total subscriber count crossed 1000 earlier this month and some readers are even paying me monthly despite this being a free newsletter.

Fictional reading🔗

I enjoy reading fantasy and science-fiction novels. I read 100+ SFF books this year despite aiming for less than 100! Anyway, I wrote a post listing my favorites here.

I even participated in NaNoWriMo. I only wrote 20K words, but I did have some fun. The novel went nowhere though and it is languishing now. Not sure if I'd get back to it someday.

Goals for 2024🔗

There are seven more books I need to update. Hopefully I get them done in a year, though I won't be pushing hard. If I crave to write some new books instead, I'd switch over to them. Or even do something else entirely. After more than six years writing tutorials and books, I sure can do with a break.

Here's wishing you a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2024 👍 😇

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