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Don Box's Spoutlet
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Writing Projects I
Writing Projects I)
About 6 months ago,
ChrisAn
and I flew down to San Jose to give an Indigo/Avalon talk to a large ISV.
On the plane ride down, I helped him write a couple of TOCs (table of contents) for potential book projects in the XAML and Avalon space.
Recently, Chris has managed to find the time to flesh out a TOC on an Avalon book and I've been helping him along as his first reviewer.
Naturally, every time he and I talk about it, I get the itch to start another writing project.
This weekend, I'm seriously contemplating doing another book.
My first question is whether books like I've written in the past make sense anymore.
If I look at the last 10 technical books I've bought or read, the Pickaxe book is the only one that's a pure "technology" book. Everything else is either a Morgan Kaufman book on data modeling or a CS or Math text.
Second, I've become quite enamored with the instant gratification of blogging and wiki (I'm doing more and more wiki-based stuff at work). This makes me very hesitant to go back to the old "writing in a vacuum" model of the 1990's. I think I can keep a book-length narrative going on a Wiki, and it would certainly be damn fun trying.
If I'm going to do this, my questions are:
What kinds of technical books do people buy nowadays? Are books like Essential COM dinosaurs in the age of Google and blogs?
What is the track record for writing in public and then publishing as a book? What are the big successes? Failures?
Assuming I use FlexWiki (which I love), how do I allow people to comment on the state of the "manuscript" without (a) dealing with vandalism and (b) dealing with people's egos when I don't take their comments. I don't know if I'm ready for a communal authoring experience, although communal reviewing sounds great. The thought of J. Random Internet user being able to edit my manuscript is pretty scary.
Posted
Feb 26 2005, 10:28 PM
by
don-box
Craig
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 02-26-2005 6:38 PM
As far as #3, you know you can ask me any time about how to set it up. For starters, I'd suggest having a locked-down namespace that only you can edit for the actual text, with a separate namespace for comments. You can even include the comment page inline back into the main text so that comments will appear on the main page, making a page where users cannot alter the top bit.
There's a dev on FlexWiki named DerekLakin who's done a BLiki plugin that might be helpful, too - I haven't looked at it close enough to tell if it would help. But I know he handles comments. Shoot me an email if you want me to check it out, or have him explain it to you.
Alternatively, you could simply post a blog entry for each chapter, link to it from the chapter, and let people comment there.
I can't help you with the ego-bruising bit. :)
Craig
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 02-26-2005 6:38 PM
Oh, and you should talk to Keith if you haven't already, obviously. His book-in-a-wiki has been around for a while now, and doesn't seem to get much vandalism.
Bill Higgins
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 02-26-2005 7:32 PM
I'd be really interested in hearing about which "Morgan Kaufman data modeling / CS / Math texts" you've read recently and which ones you found interesting.
Don Box's Spoutlet
wrote
Writing Projects II
on 02-26-2005 8:32 PM
RichB
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 02-26-2005 11:54 PM
Regarding you're FlexWiki question, MediaWiki has a "Discuss this page" type link (see the Discuss tab on Wikipedia for an example) which does what you want.
Nano
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 02-27-2005 6:21 AM
Yes Don, what Math texts do you read?
JP Morgenthal
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 02-27-2005 6:58 AM
I've been attempting to get my completed EII book published for 5 months now. First, there has been significant consolidation in the book publishing industry and the publishers left are doing serious research on each title submitted for publishing. Books about computing principles, such as data modeling or integration have not been selling well at all. Last year alone, all the books on metadata or integration combined sold less than 1,200 copies, that's over five books.
That said, books on programming are still selling fairly well. Still, I think its time for the appearance of a new medium for delivery of technical training materials and I too have been thinking about the blog/wiki/podding concepts. I'm always open to discussing the emergence of this new medium with you if you'd like.
Dragan Sretenovic
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 02-27-2005 7:20 AM
Here are a few successful examples of books written online and then published as books on paper...
** Philip Greenspun **
philip.greenspun.com/panda/
philip.greenspun.com/seia/
** Paul Graham **
** Joel Spolsky **
** John Battelle **
battellemedia.com/archives/001252.php
shopping.netledger.com/app/site/site.nl?site=ACCT108364&mode=items&id=140
** Mark Pilgrim **
diveintopython.org/
stefanrusek@hotmail.com (Stefan Rusek)
wrote
Re: Writing Projects I
on 02-27-2005 2:44 PM
I became a huge fan of you when I read Essential COM, and an even bigger fan when I taught a class on COM and force the class to read parts of the book. I even recomend it to people as a book to understand life the universe and everything. Project B sounds like one of the few books that could rival Essential COM.
Andreas Häber
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 02-28-2005 4:09 AM
Personally I stay away from the "how to..." or "learn xyz tech in xx days" books. I prefer some more background information (the why's :)) too. Most of the "how to.." info can be read from the API docs anyways.
But I'm very happy with the "lex & yacc" book I bought for a compiler course last year (). All the why's are answered in the Dragon book().
Bryan Wilhite
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 02-28-2005 11:20 AM
Don Box, you rock in ways thought not rockable. You are correct that you should question the cultural relevance of killing more trees up front instead of on demand.
You should Blog or Wiki and categorize your entries carefully. You should then build a service queries your data on demand. That query will produce the book-length publication you are looking for...
Once we have our data set we should have the option of printing it. So we can freeze the book in time but you are always making a build.
Phil
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 02-28-2005 4:12 PM
I like the Morgan Kaufmann books, too. I am also a fan of Essential .NET and Essential ASP.NET Books (pair these with C# Cookbook and ASP.NET Developers Cookbook and you are set to go). If you do decide to publish another book, make sure that I can browse to it on Safari Online Bookshelf. That is a killer service...
Matt
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 03-01-2005 1:26 AM
It would be great to have an online searchable book but 99% of the time online material just doesn't come close to a paper copy in terms of ease of use. You just can't stick in bookmarks, fold page corners, or scribble notes in the same natural way with online readers. That said, online is fantastic when you want to search for stuff you just need reminding about.
Keith Hill
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 03-01-2005 3:26 PM
I really like the "Essential *" series. I liked Essential COM and most recently Essential .NET and Essential ASP.NET. One thing I think the Devlepmentor-schooled authors appreciate is telling the story of why a technology came about WRT historical context. I also like the fact that most of the "essential" books use my reading time wisely. That is, I will pay more for a book that will teach me about a subject in fewer pages. If it is more than about 350 pages I question whether I will have to time to read it all. My time is valuable and I don't always have as much as I would like for tech reading. I also like the "essential" approach to showing example snippets with just the relevant code instead of pages and pages of an example that would compile IF I actually were to type it in (yeah right!). This is very similar to the Developmentor class room approach of doing labs - works great. I also like books that focus in on *a* topic instead of 20 (can you say "foo Unleashed").
MichaelS
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 03-02-2005 8:23 AM
Essential COM was and Essential .NET is the books to the left on my keyboard. Looking forward to expand the pile. (Ask Chris Sells to add couple sentences here and there to ease up the intensity :)
Marc
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 03-17-2005 6:35 AM
There is a nice project going on concerning wiki based book writing. A real open approach. Have a look a
Ryan Cox
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 03-25-2005 11:59 AM
Reading and writing habits are changing.
[ Writing ] Checkout Lessig's Code v2 project. He's writing his next book as a wiki:
[ Reading ] O'Reilly is doing some interesting things with their Hacks series. The Hacks series are their interpretation of the web meets dead trees. Web pages are small. Lots of folks read web pages. Let's make chapters small. Maybe lots of folks will read our books too. The books are shorter. They are easier to collaborativly produce. So far though they haven't taken on anything resembling dense subject matter. The Head First and Notebook series are also worth checking to see a riff on conventional approaches.
Jagadish Prasanna
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 03-31-2005 4:14 PM
Dear Box,
Just wanted to read more books .NET written by you.I see that most of the framework in Whidbey is locked - when will I see one more .NET FRAMEWORK book from you.
Next may be INDIGO.
Thanks,
Jaggi
lingsheng
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 06-09-2005 7:19 PM
In my opinion, i do love to read a book which can explain the Indigo's "Low Level Design and Implement". To understand the implement can really help my developing and debugging. Thank.
Dareen Ali
wrote
re: Writing Projects I
on 02-18-2006 12:42 AM
i would be grateful if you send me basic steps of writing projects with a complet explanation to every step my email is dareenoo@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Dareen Ali
Maverick Suits
wrote
The Novels of Captain Antazan
on 02-18-2006 4:05 PM
I have four books of the novel that I'm write