On Writing a Book » Book Chapter

1.4 The Author

Alexis Leon — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:10:07 +0000

The author of the book is the most important person in the creation of the book. But becoming an author is not easy. In fact, it is one of the very difficult tasks. It is tougher than getting a job; it is more difficult than teaching kids; it is tougher than selling a product; it is harder than making a presentation.

You will become an author only after you get your book published. For getting your book published, first you will have to convince a publisher or an acquisitions editor at some publishing house that your idea is worth their time, effort, and money. You will have to make them believe that your manuscript or idea, once published will at least recover the money they have invested in the project.

If you can convince the publisher or acquisitions editor that your idea will make a bestseller, then you have more options. If you are a published author with a list of bestsellers, your job is easier and you have got more bargaining power.

In this aspect, in convincing that you have a bestseller, the author of a technical book has an advantage over the author of a fictional work (for example, a novel). In your case, you can leverage your claim with your knowledge and standing in the technical community. You can find out the competing books and do a comparison and explain how your book is different and superior. Your educational qualifications, your knowledge, your work experience, and your professional affiliations will help you in winning your case.

But for a writer who has completed his first novel, neither his educational qualifications nor his work experience is going to help him. He has to persuade the publisher by his manuscript. He cannot compare his work with competing books as in the case of fiction each book is unique. Good books get rejected while mediocre ones get accepted. Getting you fictional work published involves a lot of luck, timing and meeting the right people. But the rewards are also significantly better. Once the novel makes into the bestseller list, then the money he earns and the publicity he gets is overwhelming.

Coming back to technical books, the money is not bad if not great, you will get publicity, but not in the scale of a fiction writer. Doug Lowe has written more than 45 books on various computer-related topics. Jerry Weinberg has written more than 22 exceptional books on computer programming, programmer productivity, quality assurance and consulting. But none of them come anywhere near Elizabeth Gilbert [1] who must have made more money and who is definitively more famous with just 5 books among which only one is a major bestseller. Steig Larsson [2] who has published just 3 books (all after his untimely death) is more popular and his books have made more money than either Lowe or Weinberg.

Why is this? Why are writers of fiction more famous? The answer lies in the size of the target audience. If you compare the number of people who read legal thrillers with the number of people who read books on software quality you will realize why. Writers of fiction and non-fiction (memoirs, travelogues, etc.) enjoy have massive markets, while technical writers have a limited audience.

But only a fraction of the thousands of fiction writers becomes successful and famous. Many fail to even publish one book. And of those who have succeeded publishing their first not many publishes more, especially if the first one failed. So the life of the non-technical writer is more challenging, adventurous and risky. So it is only fair that the successful ones get rewarded handsomely and become world famous.

So, what is there for the technical author or writer of technical books? Is he wasting his time? Of course not; he also gets paid; he also becomes famous. But his earnings are far less and his fame is limited to his area of specialization. But he still have a well-paying job; he will get promoted; he will become a subject expert; he will gain the respect of his peers; he will get invitations for presentations and speeches at various seminars and exhibitions; he can go on a lecture tour where he can meet people and dine and stay in style. This too is exciting and the bonus is that you still get to keep your privacy!

You have seen the advantages and benefits of becoming an author. So if you have expertise in a technical subject and you feel that you can contribute to the existing body of knowledge, then you should seriously think about writing a book. If you love your subject, like writing, and can explain the highly technical subjects with real-world examples, anecdotes, and figures, then do give a shot at writing the book.

To all the non-technical writers: we are aware of your struggle, the effort you make, the nights you stay awake to bring us stories, memoirs, travelogues and so on, to entertain and enthrall us; we certainly appreciate your effort and wish you the success and fame that you rightly deserve.

References:-

[1] Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir EAT PRAY LOVE, published in 2006, chronicled her journey alone around the world, looking for solace after a difficult divorce. The book was an international bestseller, translated into over thirty languages, with over 7 million copies sold worldwide, and a movie version in the making, starring Julia Roberts. The book became so popular that, in 2008, Time Magazine named Elizabeth as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

[2] Prior to his sudden death of a heart attack in November 2004 he finished three detective novels in his trilogy “The Millennium-series” which were published posthumously. Altogether, his trilogy has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide (summer of 2009), and he was the second bestselling author in the world 2008.

[Note: This is the first draft of the book. I would require your comments, suggestions and feedback to make the book more useful, interesting, and as error free as possible. Please send your comments, suggestions and feedback to me.]

1.3 The People

Alexis Leon — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:56:29 +0000

In this section we will see the people who collaborate to bring the book from idea to print. The major players are the author or authors, publisher, acquisitions editor, the technical experts who review the proposal, the technical reviewer, the copy-editor, the typesetter, the illustrator, the proofreader, the indexer, the printer, the marketing and sales team, the book sellers, etc. We will see the roles and responsibilities of these people in the next sections. The following figure gives an overview of the various people and their responsibilities.

1.2 The Book Publishing Process

Alexis Leon — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:07:24 +0000

In this section we will see an overview of the book publishing process. A successful book project starts as an idea and ends as a printed book. There are different processes that the idea will have to go through before it becomes a book. Along the way, many ideas will fall apart or fail to reach the final stage. In many cases the final book may fail in the market. Most of these failures, both during and after publishing can be avoided with careful planning, detailed research, and effective time management. We will discuss these issues later. The purpose of this section is to familiarize you with the publishing process.

The book publishing process will vary considerably from publisher to publisher. But the phases given in this section will be present in most cases. Every book starts as an idea. The idea could be that of the author or the publisher. If the book is the author’s idea, the author will approach the publisher. If the book idea occurred to the publisher, the publisher will find a suitable author.

Irrespective of the source of the idea, the author will have to write a book proposal, which will contain the details of how he would like to go about writing the book. It will contain a synopsis, detailed table of contents, expected time for completion, approximate number of chapters, pages, and artwork. In many cases the proposal will also contain sample chapters of the proposed book.

The book proposal is given to the publisher or an acquisitions editor of the publishing house. The proposal is usually reviewed by subject experts who will give their opinion on various areas like whether the book will sell (if yes, how many), what topics need to be included, what topics need to removed, what topics need to be expanded and so on. Usually, the proposal is reviewed by three experts and if two of them give the nod, the book is accepted. The acquisitions editor will also check for other details like quality of writing, the author’s credentials, etc. He/she will determine whether the schedules are in order and the cost of production will be covered by the revenue generated by the projected sales.

Once the proposal is accepted, the publisher will offer the contract to the author. Once the contract is signed, the author starts working on the book. The author and the acquisitions editor would have agreed on time schedules, milestones, and deliverables.

The author will deliver the completed chapters to the editor as per the schedule. These chapters are given to the technical reviewer. The technical reviewer will be a person who is an authority on the subject. The technical reviewer would review the book for correctness and clarity. The author would have to answer the queries posed by the reviewer and make revisions if required.

Once the technical review is over for all the chapters, the author should submit the manuscript to the publisher. The manuscript and the accompanying artwork would have to be submitted in the format specified by the publisher. The publisher will send the manuscript for copyediting. The copyeditor will check for grammatical errors, clarity, uniformity, consistency and other technical flaws. The copyedited manuscript is returned to the author. The author should go through the changes marked and decide to accept them or not. In this case the author usually has the final say.

Once the copyediting changes are approved and necessary revisions are completed, the author sends it back to the publisher who in turn sends it for typesetting. At the same time, the cover designer will start designing the cover. There cover designer will produce one or more designs and would send it to the author, editor and publisher for inputs and approval. The selected cover design is sent to for printing.

In the meanwhile, the typesetter would design the layout for the book and would convert the manuscript (the text and illustrations) into the new layout. The publisher will send the galley proofs (formatted pages of the manuscript) to the author for review. The galley proof process is essentially a last chance to make small changes and look for typographical errors. The author reviews the galley proofs, makes corrections (if any), and prepares the index and preliminary pages (preface, acknowledgements, dedication, etc.) and sends them back to the publisher.

During the final stages, the marketing department will sent out brochures and other information about the book to influential people and potential buyers. They will try to get the book reviewed by experts. The strategy is to create awareness about the book and also to influence the potential buyers. The author also promotes the book through personal websites, blogs, and other networking sites.

The publisher sends the corrected galley proofs and other material for printing. The book and the cover are printed and bound. They are packed and send to the distributors or bookshops. The book reaches the bookshops and the readers who in turn decide the fate of the book.

1.1 Brooks, Humphrey, Weinberg, Davis, and McConnel

Alexis Leon — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:45:39 +0000

What have Frederick Brooks, Watts Humphrey, Gerald Weinberg, Alan Davis, and Steve McConnell, in common? They are all authors of bestselling books that have transformed the software profession.

Brooks is a software engineer and computer scientist, best known for managing the development of OS/360, then later writing candidly about the process in his seminal book “The Mythical Man-Month.” Mythical Man-Month changed the way software was developed and Brooks’s law became one of the most important laws of software project management and Brooks became a cult figure in the software engineering field.

Humphrey is also a software engineer, key thinker in the discipline of software engineering, and is often called the father of software quality. His books Managing the Software Process and A Discipline for Software Engineering are ‘must reads’ for software engineers.

Weinberg is author or co-author of several hundred articles and more than 30 books. In 1971 he published the book The Psychology of Computer Programming, which is considered by many the beginning of the study of software engineering as human behavior.

Davis is a software engineer and has held numerous teaching and consulting positions in various organizations and universities around the world. He has written five books and in 2006 his book 201 Principles of Software Development was voted by ACM members as one of the 20 classic computer science books.

McConnell is an author of many software engineering textbooks including Code Complete, Rapid Development, and Software Estimation. In 1998, McConnell was named as one of the three most influential people in the software industry by Software Development Magazine, along with Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds. Code Complete is considered as a software engineer’s Bible.

What is the secret behind the phenomenal success of these authors? Their books have passed the test of time and remain as bestsellers. They continue to influence the new generation of software engineers as they did the earlier generations. Their lecture tours are fully booked and they speak before jam-packed audiences.

These authors are great speakers and excellent in written and oral communication; they have the ability to explain and illustrate complex topics in simple terms that even a novice can understand; they have comprehensive knowledge of their areas of specialization; they have years of experience in dealing with real-life problems (both technical and management) and solving them; they continue to learn; they contribute immensely to the development of the profession by teaching, mentoring, and writing; and they work real hard.

If a person has all these attributes and if he or she decides to write a book, the chances of that book becoming a success are very high. The reason is that the book such a person write will be interesting, easy-to-read and understand, engaging, and will give practical know-how and wisdom that a professional can right away apply to his/her work.

In this book we will see how to write a book that will be interesting, engaging, readable and of practical value. We will examine the successful authors and their secrets and will find out how some people continue to write bestsellers while majority of the professionals do not even think about writing a book.

1. Introduction

Alexis Leon — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:07:54 +0000

On Writing a Book is a book about writing books, more specifically writing technical books. This book is for all professional who are writing or planning to write a book. Writing a technical book, a book on a topic that you are an expert, might sound easy; but it is not. There are many hurdles and challenges that you have to overcome before you have the copy of the book in your hands and even then your duties as an author do not end.

In this book you will find comprehensive information about how to write technical books. You will find tips and tricks, tool and techniques, software and hardware resources, etc. that will assist you in becoming more productive. You will find strategies and techniques that will help you in marketing the book better and making it popular. You will also find information about how to make extra income and how to move up the career.

The tips, techniques and strategies discussed in this book are applicable to all who write technical books. The examples and case studies in the book will be mainly from computer science, information technology and management fields as they are my areas of specialization. But that will not prevent the readers from other fields (say medicine, commerce, or chemistry) in understanding the book as the examples will be generic and I will not be using any jargon.

This is not a site on how to get your book published. Even though the issues like how to find a publisher, how to write the winning book proposal forms and synopses, what are things that you should be aware of in the contract, etc. are covered, they are not the main objective of this book.

The primary audience of this book, as mentioned earlier, is people who are writing or are planning to write a book—a technical book. It will provide you information about how to organize and structure your book, how to add value to the information that you are providing, how to research and write more efficiently and effectively, and so on. It will make you more productive so that you can finish the books faster without compromising on the quality. The book will arm you with information and tools that will help you in improving the quality, visibility, and sales of the book.

I wish you all the very best in your writing endeavors and hopes that the inputs and knowledge that you gain from the book will help in making your book a bestseller.