Pt. 1, Pt. 2, and \<a href="http://www.knowing.net/PermaLink%2cguid%2cb9661672-40f8-4e8f-a26e-985fdffd5d2b.aspx"" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Pt. 3
One reason why it's very difficult to make a living writing about software development is that while traditional publications were deadline-driven, online outlets are marketing-driven. When there's a mistake about when a product will become available, an article in the pipeline can be delayed for an indeterminate period or even canceled entirely.
Such is the case with my article in which I was going to discuss context-sensitive / seam-based image resizing. I thought I was going to have an article finished by mid-October, but here it is on the verge of November and I still don't have the product. And, of course, that means that I haven't received a penny for the work I've done. And on the other hand, if I get a call tomorrow saying the product's ready, I guarantee the next line will be "... so we need that article in 10 days."
Naturally, this makes planning difficult. On the one hand, I need to plan my November and December and I can just say "yes" to some other clients. But I've already done a good chunk of the work for this article and I'd like my image-resizing code to see the light of day.
So... Such is the life of a freelance technical writer.