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Miracles happen and sometimes a book, like this one, takes off. For the most part, it's not worth your time and energy. I've made far more money as an author of articles and as an expert witness than I ever did from my books, even though one did with quite well and was translated into Greek and German.

I'll also add that he must have one heck of a deal with ORA to get those kind of royalties because the standard ORA contract based on his sales, would not come to anything like that much money.



The 25/10 structure has been O’Reilly’s standard split for at least a few years, no negotiation needed.


What does 25/10 mean in this context?


From the article:

"that I get 25% of publisher revenue from ebooks, online access, and licensing, 10% of revenue from print sales..."


> For the most part, it's not worth your time and energy.

I'd revise that, and say it's not worth your time and energy if the goal is to make money from it. There may be other goals (e.g. to evangelize and popularize some piece of technology, or maybe to make certain tech more accessible).


Did the books get you the gigs as expert witness?


How did you get into the expert witness line of work?


I would guess it's mostly an amicable relationship with one lawyer that happens to have connections to other lawyers.

Do good once with a connected lawyer, and your name gets passed around.


Your book titles?




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