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I've been pitched to write books a few times, by editors at reputable technical publishers. (HN readers would recognize the names of the publishers.) One of the
by osteele 8y ago
I've been pitched to write books a few times, by editors at reputable technical publishers. (HN readers would recognize the names of the publishers.) One of them told me up front that I would be offered an advance of $8K, that it would take 3-6 months to write the book, and that I shouldn't count on earning back the advance. She was clear that the benefits of authorship were reputational.
(The price wasn't why I turned down that and the other offers. Working on a book just isn't the thing I wake up eager to do. If I were an author I think I'd know by now…)
- adamrmcd 8y agoI think I had the same publisher. Two books done in 2010 & 2011, same basic results. What's worse, once they hit the shelves they were already out of date. The publisher had no interest in a second edition. But, the books look aweseme on my resume/linkedin. Today, I'm on a career path I wouldn't be considered for if it wasn't for these projects.
- pc86 8y agoWhat career path is that?
- commandlinefan 8y ago> the benefits of authorship were reputational LOL. I published a book through Wiley about 8 years ago. I got an advance which I did earn back, and I'm still earning a small bit on sales every year. Reputational? The only time it's ever come up was when I was interviewing for the job I have now and one of the interviewers asked, "oh, I notice you wrote a book about SSL. Do you know stuff besides SSL though?"
- outworlder 8y agoDid you continue the interview? That is a pretty big red flag for that interviewer.
- commandlinefan 8y agoOh, actually I continued the interview, took the job, and work there now. They just didn't (and still don't) care much about my knowledge of SSL.