[jdlshore]

I agree with this. I published the first edition of my book [1] through O'Reilly and had much of the same experiences. I would add, though, that their expertise in publishing was useful. They took care of copyediting, an ISBN, printing, redrawing my hand-sketched figures, etc. All stuff I could theoretically do or hire out on my own, but have zero interest in managing.

For the second edition, which I'm working on now, I had serious second thoughts about going with O'Reilly again. Ultimately, I decided that I would, mostly because I knew O'Reilly would be able to spread the word a lot further than I would. I've got a decent network, but not an amazing one.

The reasoning was that I'm a consultant, and the cachet, reach, and resulting leads I'll get from publishing through a known publisher are much more valuable than the theoretical profits I'm missing out on. That was certainly true for the first edition.

Having made that decision, I'm glad that I did. O'Reilly's provided a lot more support with the second edition than they did with the first. My production editor has been fantastic; heavily involved with reviewing draft chapters and very supportive. I also managed to swing a better royalty deal (but still far less than minimum wage) and we've had some great conversations about co-marketing the book.

[1] The Art of Agile Development (2007). I'm writing the second edition in the open; you can find it here: https://www.jamesshore.com/v2/books/aoad2