I had a contract to write a book about Google Wave. I was almost finished with it when Google decided to kill the project. I got a kill fee (which was almost n

I had a contract to write a book about Google Wave. I was almost finished with it when Google decided to kill the project. I got a kill fee (which was almost nothing) and a great story to tell, but it taught me a good lesson about how to balance an advance vs going for more residuals on the backend (this is true primarily for technical books. For traditional publishing, get as big of an advance as you can get). The secondary lesson was to not sign contracts for books about Google products (only slightly joking), or really any upcoming product or language without understanding the risk you as the author take if the project is canceled or delayed or there is some other fundamental change. I was 25 when I got the Wave book and it was a lot of work and research for nothing, but I can look back and laugh at the experience. I’ve turned down technical books over the last few years, just because unless you sell 100,000 copies, it can be hard to make the economics work — unless I would be willing to take it on as a side-gig. That said, if it is a hit, the speaking fees/workshops/consulting options from that book can pay dividends, as I’ve seen from many of my friends.