Should I write a book?

This was originally posted on blogger here.

I could be writing a technical booklet of sorts that might grow into a full technical text. Maybe for Plone 3, Zope 3, Grok, or Django. I think I would really prefer writing something for Django. Some concerns:

• Time. Where would I find it?
• Is the pay worth my effort?

Some alleviations to my concerns:

• My consulting has been going slowly. Time could come from there.
• Writing a book would get me more and better work thanks to recognition

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3 comments captured from original post on Blogger

yacitus said on 2008-06-18

I know a couple people who have written technical books. They both agreed that the money they made from book sales was definitely not worth the effort. (And one of them sold fairly well.) But they also both agreed that the book brought them quite a bit of consulting business.

Unknown said on 2009-01-29

I would not agree that it's not worth the effort. I recently helped kick Practical Plone 3 out the door and wrote a few chapters, and I'm also halfway through a skinning book for Plone. I'm not writing for the glory or better work -- it's about patching holes for the community. Oh, and no, the money isn't great, but I think the value added to Plone is what's really important here.

If you want to write, contact the major publishers. Packt and Apress have been looking for more authors and reviewers of late, and you should get your feet wet -- but only if you're willing to put your life on hold for a while.

• Veda

pydanny said on 2009-01-29

@Yacitus, I actually have as much consulting time a I want. The problem is finding the time to actually work the consulting!

@Veda, what really decided this for me is your last sentence. My life is very busy, and writing a book would eat away time I don't have.