On writing a technical book

So, that’s it. Three months after starting from scratch, the final chapter and introduction have been reviewed and sent off to production.

Of course the production material still needs to be reviewed, but as for new material, I’m done.

I can’t believe I’ve done it. I’ve written a book. A technical book. In 3 months! I can’t say it’s a dream come true, because it never was a dream of mine but I’m definitely very pleased to have done it, and will be even more so when it’s published and I actually have it in my hands.

Thanks

The whole process of writing a book was quite new to me of course, but I soon got into the swing of things. I’ve been very lucky as I’ve had a brilliant publisher at Peachpit in Rebecca Gulick who gave me a thorough introduction to the entire book writing process. I also had an excellent copy editor in Anne Marie Walker who has been very patient with me and of course Chris Mills (@chrisdavidmills) who, as my technical reviewer, had some great suggestions for additions and reworking.

Process

I suppose you might be wondering about the process, so I’ll describe it briefly. I would have thought that the book should be written in order, chapter 1 through to the end, and it was for the most part, but I was advised to leave the introduction until last. The main reason behind this was because I’d have a better idea of the book and the direction it has taken and I could introduce it better. Indeed this was the case.

So I started with chapter 1. Basically the process was this: I’d write a new chapter, in Microsoft Word (within a specific template), complete with screenshots, and pass it to the copy editor, who’d review it, and would add comments, and then pass it on to the technical reviewer who would do the same. Then it would be handed back to me, and I’d make changes based on the comments and suggestions. Sometimes I agreed with them, other times not, but I would always explain why, as you do tend to get stuck in your own mindset and it’s good to have someone perhaps change your mind logically or be satisfied with your explanation.

The reviewed chapter would then go from me back to the copy editor and perhaps the technical reviewer, depending on the changes (i.e. if there were a number of suggested technical changes that should be re-checked). Usually that was it for the chapter, although there might have been the odd question that needed to be answered before the editor prepared the document and sent it to production.

Of course this process was continuous, and once I was into it, I was constantly writing a new chapter, whilst another one was being reviewed, keeping the process going. I rarely was reviewing a chapter unless I had handed in a new one.

As mentioned earlier, I did all this in 3 months, which naturally meant a lot of working late into the evenings and over the weekends as I still have a day job to do.

Next Steps

So here’s where I’m at now, the writing is finished and I’m waiting to start reviewing the production files, which are the first drafts of how the chapters will look in the book itself. There are already a number of things I know I need to address.

There will be an accompanying website for the book, at www.html5multimedia.com which will contain all the coding examples from the book. There’s only a holding page at the moment as I’m still building the site and of course it won’t be live until the book is out.

Speaking of which, the book is due to be published in the middle of November 2011, which can be pre-ordered at Amazon or Peachpit. The eBook will probably be available slightly earlier.

Afterwards

Well not really afterwards, but I currently have another few writing projects which I need to be getting on with, and if you’d read this you’ll no doubt hear about them, since you’ll be following me either here or on twitter.

Watch this space!