[eric_bullington]

This is true, but it's important to bear in mind that a relatively high-prestige publisher like O'Reilly can make or break someone's reputation as a high-price consultant. O'Reilly realizes this, and pays their authors relatively poorly.

If you want to make significant money as a tech book author, I'm guessing you have to do what Brennan Dunn does, and self-publish your book and market it yourself. I'm guessing that after you've published an O'Reilly book, you could make a pretty nice sum if you do this on your next book.