Writing Technical Content

I just read a blog post from Jeff Putz on "Why you should (or shouldn't) write a programming book".

From my own experience, I can instantly provide one reason you may *not* want to write a technical book - to make money directly.  Oh you can make some money, but you can make much more money using the same time & energy on development projects or contracts.

Has authoring books helped me make money indirectly?  I have to believe it has had an impact.  But could I be in the same place professionally now if I never authored any books at all?  I don't know.

With that said, would I write another book?  As Jeff mentioned in his blog post, it depends on motivation.  I would only write (or co-author) another technical book if I was very passionate about the subject material.  Since the time investment needed to write good material is strong, I would only do so if deadlines were realistic.  Of course, I would need to make a decent amount of money.

Some authors have what appears to be natural ability to crank (good) content out in an efficient amount of time.  Dan Wahlin is a great example of someone highly self-disciplined with regard to technical writing.  I have seen Dan in action, and his speed to getting tough topics written in a short amount of time is highly impressive.  I suppose that is the other motivation... the more you write, the more likely you will write better and faster.

With a potential writing opportunity on my desk, I want to thank Jeff for getting me to evaluate the question in more depth.