Why "I" Write Book$
Interesting post from Wintellectual Jeff Prosise (Hi Jeff) about the reasons why we (me and Jeff at a minimum <g>) write books. Quoting the most interesting passage:
For the record, you don't write computer books for the money. You write them because a book is an education in a box. I wish I had time to type out a detailed response to every developer who contacts me needing help. Unfortunately, I can't, because the ratio of developers to me is many to 1. That's why books are so important. They allow one person--the author--to scale to meet the needs of many. God bless Gutenberg.
Speaking for myself, I do try to write books for the money, but it just doesn't work this way. However, the more people buy my books; the more I feel better and plan to do more :-)
PS #1: I've hitherto been lucky enough not to get an email like the one that Jeff mentions.
PS #2: I remember to have heard from #1 Wintellectual Jeff Richter that a fellow once arrived up to the point of asking him to lend money at the end of a few days of intense Q&A about technical topics. Yeah, I'm definitely a lucky guy :-)