After his personal tragedies while he remaining locked in his room, Blackford began working on a book to report the important decisions of the Supreme Court and provide a legal source to the state lawyers and judges. He was meticulous and precise in his writing. His biographer attributed his ability to write concisely to the fact that he never practiced law extensively, and never developed the habit of writing lengthy arguments, but instead kept his thoughts clear and precise. Each volume he authored covered a decade of court decisions and were published four years after the decade was complete. So careful was Blackford in ensuring the quality and accuracy of the work, he regularly held up printing to make corrections found after a few volumes were printed, and after they were printed, if an error was reported, he would destroy the existing copies and have new ones made. He used his own savings to have the books published with the intention of selling them to lawyers in Indiana. The sale of the books brought Blackford a substantial income, and he earned between $1,500 and $2,000 annually on royalties.