So you want to write a technical book

What I've heard from speaking to other technical authors is that the value comes from the opportunities it can generate. Writing a good book in a technical field can help establish you as an expert in the field, which can generate things like consultancy opportunities.

The author has very good points but their assumption of a 10K advance is not what I have seen (or been paid) in the traditional industry. Most publishers I’ve worked with or approached were paying between 1K and 2K in advance depending on which terms you accept. You usually get some more money if you allow the book to be distributed to libraries or be placed in some all-you-can-eat services.

Regardless of the publishing route you chose — traditional or self-publishing — it is very hard to make money with a technical book. Most people who are financially successful are those with an established platform. The traditional publisher will do very little to push your book. As an example, I made much more money from my self-published books than my recent traditional published book even though they sold less because I keep all the money instead of getting a small royalty.

Publishing a book is not all about making money, each of us have their own reason to write and money is more of a side-effect than the primary cause. I hope posts like these inspire more people to publish.

Oh, I’ve also shipped a prototype ebook generator at https://little.webby.press that runs purely on the client-side, no accounts, no tracking, no state. I think people here might enjoy it.

This is a poem by Charles Bukowski, I don't know if it's the original use: https://poets.org/poem/so-you-want-be-writer

Yep, exactly what I've been told too.

I think the two reasons to write a book would be if you're super enthusiastic about a topic and are dying to tell the world about it, and/or you want to establish yourself and use the book as a lead generator.

On the other hand, how many times do you see something like Java 2.0 or C#2 books which are out-of-date very soon after the author has slaved over the whole process!

The trick is obviously writing about something that won't change too much like Design Patterns and avoiding very specific things unless you are motivated by love!