How to Write a Book
http://live.pirillo.com/ – Lyle in the chatroom is interested in writing a book and wants to know how he can write a technology book without being torn to shred by critics and his peers.
Chris’s advice: "write what you and own what you write."
If you don’t really understand a subject then you probably shouldn’t write a book about it. Even if you do understand a subject, then you need to consider if you really do want to write a book, because if you’re in it for the money you’ll be sorely disappointed.
Instead of writing a book, you may consider blogging about the subject you like: after a year of blogging you may very well have enough content for a book, and all you need to do it is take that content and create a mashup in a book format.
Also, consider going the eBook route. You don’t have to deal with a publisher, and it’s possible to create a good stream of income with this method.
Do you have any suggestions for Lyle?
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One Comment
Chris Leeds
June 24th, 2007
at 6:33pm
I’ll tell you this from recent personal experience;
it’s easier to write a novel than a step by step procedural book for a piece of software.
I’m about mid-way on a step by step book for MS Press and it’s grueling. It’d actually be easier to just think up a storyline, develop a set of characters, and simply “write”. The endless try a procedure, write some steps, further the procedure, write some more steps… Yeesh!
Chris