This is why most publishers won't even talk to you unless you have a finished manuscript already, but I appreciated this look into a different situation.

I hope you finish the book. I would buy it.

> This is why most publishers won't even talk to you unless you have a finished manuscript already

This is absolutely not true in the world of technical publishing. I mean books published with publishers like O'Reilly, Manning, No Starch, etc. Usually you come to them with just a proposal and a couple chapters or even just a proposal. Or their acquisition editors actually reach out to you. It's the exception (not quite rare, but definitely less than 20% of books) that comes to them with a finished manuscript. I did that with my last book. I've published 5 technical books across three different technical publishers, so I know a bit about this business...

I'm just replying to this comment to not discourage people who just have an idea and not a finished book yet but have the motivation to finish and want to get a deal.

This is not true for business books like mine. It's vital to write a proposal first in that world; publishers want to influence the content (as in the OP article).

I think the same is true for tech books but I don't know as I haven't written one.

A novel or other fiction is the opposite; there you do have to write the whole thing first.