I've written 2 books, so I suppose I'll answer the reverse question - how come nothing stopped me?
The first one was an accident of sorts. I went to a lot of conferences in the late 90's, early 2000's around the world to hawk our wares, and wanted a way to supplement the returns, so I'd visit user groups and do some training with them.
I started with simple notes, which gradually grew up to about 120 pages, which accompanied a full day course. After one event in 2002 I was pestered to sell extra copies of the notes, by folk who weren't there.
Initially I resisted, they weren't written with that in mind, but capitulated, edited, added a bunch of things, and sold them for $50 plus postage - I cleared about $25 per copy and sold in total about 1000 copies.
The second one was more deliberate, although again borne out of a 2 day training class. That costs $200,is PDF only, and I've sold maybe 300 or so. I update that one and am currently working on the 4th edition. (in 13 years)
It's not terribly profitable. The time it takes to write is insane. Unlike casual speaking or blogging every tiny detail has to be checked. It has to have a coherent voice. It ultimately needs to teach difficult concepts and make them easy.
To describe the topic as niche is an understatement. It's a pimple on niche. If it was 100 times bigger it'd still be a small niche. So upside, no competition. Downside, tiny market. Its not really profitable, but it is a nice side project.
So maybe the right answer to your question, for most people, is that they haven't accidentally tripped into it (yet).
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I've written 2 books, so I suppose I'll answer the reverse question - how come nothing stopped me?
The first one was an accident of sorts. I went to a lot of conferences in the late 90's, early 2000's around the world to hawk our wares, and wanted a way to supplement the returns, so I'd visit user groups and do some training with them.
I started with simple notes, which gradually grew up to about 120 pages, which accompanied a full day course. After one event in 2002 I was pestered to sell extra copies of the notes, by folk who weren't there.
Initially I resisted, they weren't written with that in mind, but capitulated, edited, added a bunch of things, and sold them for $50 plus postage - I cleared about $25 per copy and sold in total about 1000 copies.
The second one was more deliberate, although again borne out of a 2 day training class. That costs $200,is PDF only, and I've sold maybe 300 or so. I update that one and am currently working on the 4th edition. (in 13 years)
It's not terribly profitable. The time it takes to write is insane. Unlike casual speaking or blogging every tiny detail has to be checked. It has to have a coherent voice. It ultimately needs to teach difficult concepts and make them easy.
To describe the topic as niche is an understatement. It's a pimple on niche. If it was 100 times bigger it'd still be a small niche. So upside, no competition. Downside, tiny market. Its not really profitable, but it is a nice side project.
So maybe the right answer to your question, for most people, is that they haven't accidentally tripped into it (yet).