Re:Writing a software book and making over $100k
by ghaff on Monday July 13, 2020 @09:49AM
(#23820705)
It all tends to be interconnected. A number of people ask me for advice based in part on the last book I wrote. I'm happy to give them a free hour phone call as it's sort of good ambassadorship associated with my day job. I could do a side consulting business in the space but don't really have an interest so I give them the name of one or two people I know who do have consulting businesses if they want to dig deeper.
Re:Writing a software book and making over $100k
by chrisseaton on Monday July 13, 2020 @09:41AM
(#23820618)
> Yes you could write a book, but no one would buy it or even hear about it
Lol thanks for the attack on my writing skill and ability to promote myself!
Being an expert in a field and being able to write a book doesn't mean you're any good at consulting. That's my point. It's a different skill.
Re:Writing a software book and making over $100k
by scarface74 on Monday July 13, 2020 @09:54AM
(#23820774)
That’s not what I said at all. I in fact said just the opposite. The process he took to promote himself so his book would sell is the same process it would take to promote himself as a consultant.
Also, consulting really involves only a few things:
- marketing yourself
- being able to listen to people and figure out their needs
- being a good communicator and being able to explain concepts well.
- being technical sound enough to solve the problem.
- being disciplined enough to be a consistent worker.
Most of which overlaps with being a successful technical author.
By the time you established yourself as an expert in the field like he did, consulting opportunities would open themselves up.
I just have a very small network compared to him, haven’t tried to market myself and just through word of mouth, I’ve had a couple of people asking me about consulting for their startups that could have easily netted $30K - $40K at $125-$150/hour.
I have a strict policy about not doing side gigs so I turned them down. But now, I probably would have had to turn them down regardless because of a conflict of interest since I do consulting as part of $day_job.