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Writing a book: is it worth it?
11–20 of 299 posts
Re: Writing a book: is it worth it?
#12>The combination of talks and the book have allowed me to establish a significant public presence and reputation in this field. I now get far more invitations to speak at conferences than I can realistically accept. Conference talks don’t generate income per se (good industry conferences generally pay for speakers’ travel and accommodation, but they rarely pay speaking fees), but this kind of reputation is helpful for getting consulting gigs.
This has been the real value of writing books--especially through a known publisher--for me. (I'm updating one at the moment.) Even if you're not a consultant, publishing a book on some topic still can give you cachet--and, in fact, because of the research you did, you probably are pretty expert on the topic even if you weren't before.
I agree that the expected future value of royalties isn't much--but there are other ways to earn money related to a book.
Re: Writing a book: is it worth it?
#13I wrote a book back in 2000 and it's one of those glad-I-did-it-but-never-again experiences. I think the author nailed it with, "I strongly recommend that you estimate the value of your future royalties to be close to zero." Do it as a way to give back / contribute to a topic you are passionate about, do it for the amazing learning experience, do it for the challenge. And then if you also make some money off it, that…
I'm not sure where I first heard this, but I feel it, even as I think about writing more: "everyone loves having written a book, not so much writing a book."
I've heard it as, "I hate writing but love having written." The source is apparently unclear:
Re: Writing a book: is it worth it?
#14> The personal growth that comes from taking on such a challenge is also considerable. And there is no better way to learn something in depth than by explaining it to others.
I second. If you can't explain it, you don't understand it well enough. I'm the author of a YouTube course "Dynamic Programming for Beginners" [0]. Helping people to better understand the topic is a pure joy by itself, but it's also extremely rewardable for an author in terms personal growth. If you want to understand something, start teaching, you won't regret.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVrpF4r7WIhTT1hJqZmjP...
Re: Writing a book: is it worth it?
#15As far as I can tell, writing and publishing a dead-tree book is the best/only way to get on NPR. As far as I'm concerned, that's the only purpose dead-tree books serve anymore.
I much prefer physical books to e-books, especially for technical ones. I learn much better from a physical copy - flipping back and forth, checking where the current section fits into the bigger structure etc I find to be easier. I also like to underline and write notes in the margins - again, I prefer this in a physical book.
Re: Writing a book: is it worth it?
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure where I first heard this, but I feel it, even as I think about writing more: "everyone loves having written a book, not so much writing a book."
I've heard it as, "I hate writing but love having written." The source is apparently unclear: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/10/18/on-writing/
Even better, guess I need to work on my writing :)
For me, I do like writing, it's just... really really difficult. That's part of what makes it so worthwhile.
Re: Writing a book: is it worth it?
#17I wrote a book back in 2000 and it's one of those glad-I-did-it-but-never-again experiences. I think the author nailed it with, "I strongly recommend that you estimate the value of your future royalties to be close to zero." Do it as a way to give back / contribute to a topic you are passionate about, do it for the amazing learning experience, do it for the challenge. And then if you also make some money off it, that…
I'm not sure where I first heard this, but I feel it, even as I think about writing more: "everyone loves having written a book, not so much writing a book."
Even if you enjoy some of the research and interviews--and even the writing off and on--pushing an entire book out there is inevitably a grind for most people, especially if you're up against deadlines.
Re: Writing a book: is it worth it?
#18As far as I can tell, writing and publishing a dead-tree book is the best/only way to get on NPR. As far as I'm concerned, that's the only purpose dead-tree books serve anymore.
I've found few issues on which people are as diametrically opposed as the ebook/physical book debate.
I did a reading group at work a couple of years ago (for Designing Data Intensive Applications as it turns out!), and half the group looked at me like I had 3 heads when I offered to buy them hard copies and the other half was insulted if I didn't offer them hard copies
Re: Writing a book: is it worth it?
#19My favorite line in the post, and one that inspires my own efforts lately: > How to be a 10x engineer: help ten other engineers be twice as good. Producing high-quality educational materials enables you to be a 300x engineer.
That sentiment (though I didn't think of it in quite this fashion) is why I set up a bi-weekly project management meeting at my last office, and tried to set up something similar for technical people.
The PM meeting was not a status reporting meeting. It had no management beyond the PMs (that is, no supervisors proper). The entire purpose was to facilitate sharing information across project boundaries (technical, procedural, or even just a chance to vent). I considered it to have "paid for itself" after two PMs discovered that another PM had already solved a procedural problem (how to get something done, not a technical problem) that they'd been stumbling over for months. That was also the day the PMs stopped complaining about the (non-mandatory) meeting that I'd set up for them. Another time, a PM discovered that another project had exactly the test capabilities they needed (but because of physical separation was totally unaware of this test lab tucked into a corner). Saved a lot of time and money that day, and the project ended up ahead of schedule in that aspect (not sure if they kept that lead, I left shortly after).
I wish I'd been able to get the technical meeting going, but management wasn't willing to give people the hour I asked for and "lunch & learn" only works for the motivated when you aren't getting paid and you aren't getting training credits towards some certification.
Re: Writing a book: is it worth it?
#20As far as I can tell, writing and publishing a dead-tree book is the best/only way to get on NPR. As far as I'm concerned, that's the only purpose dead-tree books serve anymore.
Trees are a renewable resource.