[patio11]

After someone convinces me that spending a few months slaving over editing and promotion is more fun than writing software, better paying than consulting, more helpful than teaching language lessons, more impressive to a Ms. Right than time at the gym, etc.

Much like taking investment, it would be flattering but not get me anything I really want right now.

[Rimpinths]

I've always really enjoyed reading your posts on HN. I saw that you were quoted in The Register with some identifying information, and I finally put 2 and 2 together and realized that you were the author of some of my favorite posts over at TMF too. Those were some hilarious stories. I hope you find the time in the future to share some more of them over there, but can completely understand what a time sink it is to write material for an audience of strangers on the interwebs. On behalf of those strangers, I would like to say that it was much appreciated while it lasted. Thanks for all of the laughs and knowledge that you've shared.

[tomjen3]

I am not going to claim that it is either of those, except possibility impressive to Ms Right, depending on who she is.

But it will help you get consulting gigs if you can say you wrote a book about X, where X is somewhat related to the consulting.

Whether that is worth it to you, is obviously something you would have to decided. I would by any book about how to run a small software company, organic seo, ab testing with rails or similar you write and I do believe many other here would too.

[edanm]

Obviously it depends on you. But I think having a book published gives you:

1) Warm glowy feeling + bragging rights.

2) A lot more "longevity" than just a blog.

3) It makes the world a slightly better place (and makes some people really happy).

I say 3) because I love reading, love collecting (good) books, and having more good books to read is always better. I read a ton of blogs and read HN every day, but books are still the best media for serious works, and I'm sure my book collection will be my pride and joy many years in the future, long after I've forgotten half the blogs I read now.

All of that is really just my way of saying, please spend the time. I'd love to have your book in my library!

[mechanical_fish]

A lot more "longevity" than just a blog

A. I'm not sure I believe this. I have bought three or four books which were compiled from blogs. They all felt really dated within a couple of years. I read each of them zero to one time and then sold them off; after all, the material is there online if I need to refer to it again. And sometimes the online version even gets refreshed.

B. Books only have more "longevity" than blogs if you are a librarian, or at least an amateur librarian. You must keep them around on your shelf for a long time, dust them off, carry them from place to place. It pains me to say this, as a former book collector and the son of two book collectors, but in the networked era print book archiving is like collecting and preserving fine art: A vital activity for a handful of professionals, but a niche hobby for everyone else. Especially for content that was born in digital form.

C. Books don't collect links. Except possibly to (e.g.) Amazon, which helps Amazon's SEO but contributes nothing to your own. It might be the height of irony for Patrick to publish a dead-trees book which advises you to publish everything on your own web site where it can attract inbound links.

[ajdecon]

I know they get a bad rap around here, but... this really is the use-case for traditional publishers. You package the posts into a book, they do the rest (if they like it).

[derefr]

Perhaps you would be interested in just licensing someone the commercial reproduction+modification rights for your posts, then?

[pchristensen]

37signals made a lot of money selling "Getting Real", and it was straight blog posts. You should look into how they did it.

[dminor]

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/blog-into-book/