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by PreInternet01 719 days ago
As the article correctly states, writing a book is a good idea for many reasons, but generating income isn't among those.

My personal experience: during the golden days of the technical book market, a good 15-20 years ago, writing a chapter would net you $1500 (for, like, 2-3 weeks of work, better pay than a magazine article that would take approximately the same time but pay a bit less) an entire book maybe $25K, but that would take you at least 6 months to complete.

Of course, that was just the upon-completion payment, with the promise of later royalties if the book did well, but, unless you were very lucky, that pretty much never happened.

Still, a payment of $2500-in-todays-dollars for less than a month of work isn't entirely bad, and being a published author did have its perks for getting consulting gigs.

But these days, "a magazine or book deal that pays actual money" just isn't a thing anymore, so, yeah...