Former O'Reilly editor here: story checks out. The 1/3 might be a bit low -- I had some surprises (one guy joined the Peace Corps and moved to South America, plus usual divorces and deaths and job changes) but it felt more like 80% completed. This might be the rosy glasses of memory, though.
There's also a weird difference in incentive between writing the first edition and working on updates: if the author was just after "I wrote a book!" then they already have that, and won't be so interested in updating.
If they were made famous and now have a lot of work as a result of the first book, they may not have time for it. It's quite the delicate dance to get someone else to update the book: without the update, sales will drop, but 1st edition authors feel weird giving a lot of their (not sizable) royalties to someone who didn't write most of the text.
That is fascinating. As someone who has writing a technical book as a life goal, I'd love to ask--do you have any insights you'd be willing to share regarding how to get started?
Are you already blogging? If not, I would start doing that. Writing short form technical articles and sharing them is like bootcamp for longer form writing. You'll learn the mechanics of organizing thoughts into a linear narrative, the discipline to finish, and you'll get feedback from readers about what works and what doesn't.
I blogged for a few years (and wrote thousands and thousands of comments on Reddit, which was also helpful) before I wrote a book.
There's also a weird difference in incentive between writing the first edition and working on updates: if the author was just after "I wrote a book!" then they already have that, and won't be so interested in updating.
If they were made famous and now have a lot of work as a result of the first book, they may not have time for it. It's quite the delicate dance to get someone else to update the book: without the update, sales will drop, but 1st edition authors feel weird giving a lot of their (not sizable) royalties to someone who didn't write most of the text.