Speaking in Las Vegas, a long way from home For some people it’s just a matter of personal achievement, and knowing that they contributed something of value to the community. Many people have used a book, or a blog, or a software project as a launch pad to success in other areas, whether it be helping them land a job with a great company, or opening doors to paid opportunities such as speaking, writing whitepapers, freelance consulting, and so on. Yes, it’s nice to be compensated for your efforts, but a direct income isn’t the only way that happens. Whether you’re writing a book, or writing a blog, or creating a software tool, the definition of success isn’t always about money. I happen to disagree, for several reasons.įirstly, success means different things to different people. There’s a general view in the IT industry that you don’t make money from writing books, therefore there’s no point in writing books. Or that they have written a book, and it didn’t earn them very much money, so they feel like they can’t justify the amount of effort involved in writing another one even if they wanted to. Sometimes I meet other IT pros and developers who tell me that they’ve always wanted to write a book, but they worry about whether it’s worth doing. Where I wrote my first book Success as a Technical Author But I would say that I first started thinking of myself as a writer in 2014, which was the first year that I collaborated with other authors to write technical books. That’s when I started putting “writer” on the little piece of paper you fill out when you enter the US. In 2015 I quit my last full-time job to work primarily as an author creating books, articles, and video courses, with consulting being a secondary activity.
This year I also worked on my first technical book with a traditional publisher, co-authoring an exam reference for Microsoft Press. I wrote my first technical book (a self-published eBook) in 2010, releasing it in January of 2011, and since then I’ve authored or co-authored another 8 technical books, all self-published titles, and most still on the market today. I’ve been blogging since around 2006, and did a little paid freelance writing here and there. It’s hard to say exactly when I began thinking of myself as a writer.
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