>Would you publicize the tutorials and cookbooks to the public (via a blog or project email list) before you sold the cookbooks to the companies?
I did not (only did it a handful of times). Although it would be the smart thing to do. It would put you in an advantageous position to market the book to all interested parties.
>How many of these did you do?
About five in total. None of them were ultra-long and detailed cookbooks. They were short, but to the point. Less than a hundred pages.
>What was the level of effort for each of the cookbooks?
It was rather easy because cookbooks don't require a lot of explanation. They were just me showing people how to do things with whatever technology. If the cookbook was for an API I already had a formula. Start with authentication and work my way through the endpoints. Including code examples for every step in various programming languages (mostly Java, PHP, and Python). Super easy.
What did the company do with the cookbook? Put it up on their website?
They would either put it on their website or distribute it as a PDF. Though all these companies are now dead except one. And that last one did a complete rewrite of their stuff.
Overall, the whole thing was fun and easy money. I've been working with technical documentation since the 80s so it came kind of naturally. I stopped doing it because I wanted to code more. But I would not mind doing it again someday. I'm actually working on some books myself, but those are a scheduled for much later this year. :)
Would you publicize the tutorials and cookbooks to the public (via a blog or project email list) before you sold the cookbooks to the companies?
How many of these did you do?
What was the level of effort for each of the cookbooks?
What did the company do with the cookbook? Put it up on their website?