on getting out of consulting-- wouldn't that slowly age your relevance on marketing products/workshops/ebooks as an expert on running a consulting company? Why not keep some consulting business to stay 'in the game'?
If I were writing ebooks and workshops on something technical - like Ruby - then yes, it would be a bad example to withdraw from Ruby.
Also, I doubt I'll ever stop consulting altogether. But my days of writing code full time for clients is drawing to an end.