When I am dead, I hope it is said;

The schedules were the worst part: I swear they'd spend more time walking the freaking paperwork through approval than they would build into the schedule for the actual writing. As in "update a 900-page book on an OS major release update in 6 weeks". At least once, I received the signed copies of the contract back from the publisher *after* the completion date for the writing phase of the book.