Even so, a number of developers, publishers and authors have continued plugging away at the idea, with the results often standing proud as works of fiction or non-fiction, regardless of the way they're delivered.
Donald Trump, real estate developer and author, with Dave Shiflett, of "The America We Deserve".
The peer was also an art collector, property developer and author.
"You often can't really chip in sharp/sarcastic comments," wrote Martin Pistorius, a 36-year-old Web developer and author, in an e-mail.
Turshen is a writer, recipe developer and author of the best-selling "Small Victories" and the more recent "Feed the Resistance" (Chronicle Books, 2017).
"My house was becoming crazy, and my wife was on my back," said Mr. Blumenfield, a Los Angeles real estate developer and author of "Blanc de Chine: The Great Porcelain of Dehua".
Art has a way of rising from the rubble, according to Simon Kelly, a real-estate developer and author of "Breakfast with Anglo," a book about his own experiences in the boom.
Martin Ford, a software developer and author of two books on automation, said the future is much different: machines that can perform physical labour in nonstandard environments with super-human precision are merely years away.
Barb Stuckey, food developer and author of Taste What You're Missing: the passionate eater's guide to why good food tastes good, believes the best way to drum up enthusiasm for a type of food is to become an expert on it.
