I wrote a couple of books recently and have some tips for aspiring authors:
* Start by blogging. Try to get thousands of daily pageviews with an average time on page > 5 minutes. Objectively verify you're able to write content that's engaging.
* Try to fill a niche. My book is focused on practical advice for getting productive with Spark using the Scala API quickly. There are other books that cover theory, discuss all 4 language APIs simultaneously, and are API documentation narratives (e.g. Chapter 4 will cover all the DataFrame methods in alphabetical order). Most people don't have the attention span for huge books.
* Target middle school reading level. Short sentences & simple words. Technical audiences want information and don't care much about literary prose.
* Organize your code snippets in a repo, so it's easy to update your book
I got some offers from publishers, but went the self-publishing route cause I didn't think that a publisher could give too much valuable feedback on such a technical topic. Lots of my blog readers told me my blogs are easy to follow, so I felt confident I didn't need a professional editor. Publishers pay 20% royalties and self publishing lets you keep 80%+, so you should only go with a publisher if they can add that extra value.
Writing a book was a great experience for me. It's an easy way to train folks who are new to Spark. Several folks have emailed me, told me they can't afford the book, and I've sent them free copies. Don't think writing books is a great way to make money, but it's great if you have altruistic motives.
I followed a similar path with Computer Graphics from Scratch [0], somewhat accidentally. You'd be surprised about how much valuable feedback a publisher can give on such a technical topic! When No Starch Press approached me I thought "the content is almost finished, this will take a month or two". It took two years, and the book is significantly better after I went through the process with them.
Thanks for sharing! I actually chatted with No Starch Press and met with them in their offices. Really nice people and amazing vibe. I am working on a PySpark book and will reach out to No Starch again based on your comment.
Two years would cause most technical books to miss a market window. Other will have written on the topic, and perhaps be established as a standard by then.
It’s great that the book is improved, but that delay is a killer.
Good point. To be fair, most of the delay was my own fault, due to life events (moving internationally, starting a new job, the f*** pandemic, etc). I was the bottleneck, not them.
100% agree with this sentiment. My co-author and I are wrapping up a book with No Starch and the experience has been very positive. The editing, in particular, has been stellar.
> I felt confident I didn't need a professional editor.
FWIW, I think this almost always bad advice. Being your own editor is a bit like being your own lawyer - even if you have the right skills you don't have the right perspective.
It's obvious when something is desperately in need of editing. What's less obvious is how much better something "ok" could be with a good editor.
Well from a purely monetary standpoint, if you make 4x more money when publishing yourself you can afford to sell 4 times fewer books to make the same amount, so the real question is: can the editor impact my book so much that it will increase sales 4 times?
Not saying that you are wrong, more that there are legitimate reasons why an editor might not be the right way forward.
> more that there are legitimate reasons why and editor might not be the right way forward.
I think this is true, and certainly didn't mean to suggest otherwise. It's just that "a (good) editor wouldn't improve my output" is approximately never true.
Whether that improvement is worth whatever it costs you to get it is a separable question.
Also what is the cost of hiring an editor if you are self publishing? That’s another route and I bet you could find a good one at a more reasonable cost.
For fiction editing (developmental and copy) I've spent around 550-700 USD for 80k words. Not sure how that converts for a programming book but the editing was well done and really improved the manuscript which resulted in a big increase in sales for follow up books.
I hired a freelance editor to help me with my blog, and it was the best money I ever spent for improving my professional writing.[0] You can get a good editor and still self-publish.
If money's tight, there's still substantial value in just having an editor review a portion of your book and telling you about anti-patterns in your writing.
Is it though, or is it merely a century of the professional publishing industry justifying its necessity?
Neither Plato, nor Nietzsche had an editor. Now those are just two historical examples two and a half millenia apart, but this group also includes any author in between these two.
> Target middle school reading level. Short sentences & simple words. Technical audiences want information and don't care much about literary prose.
Also, don't bury the lede, but put the main points in the first paragraph, then elaborate on them throughout the rest of the essay.
The Abstract in academic papers is a good example - state the problem, explain how you addressed/explored it, and report your conclusions. Don't bury your conclusions in the paper, but use the paper to elaborate in detail on how you arrived at them.
As for targeting middle school reading level, Scott Adams has a good writeup on exactly how to do that:
If your material has a long life, you could self publish. Then a year or 2 later after sales have dwindled you could look for a publisher interested in taking over it & giving it a new life.
If you self publish you can contract your own professional editor or reviewers. It's worth doing if you're spending significant time/money in the book &/or marketing. Some popular tech book publishers crowdsource their editing by giving free copies to people interested in editing.
I've written two tech books, one python and one Go.
Not have earned me much more than Apress was offering!
I'm based in India though, so $ to Rupee conversion is helpful for me.
My books are pay as you choose. So if those who can't pay can download my high quality book for free. Total readers till now for Go book has been more than 6k!
* Start by blogging. Try to get thousands of daily pageviews with an average time on page > 5 minutes. Objectively verify you're able to write content that's engaging.
* Try to fill a niche. My book is focused on practical advice for getting productive with Spark using the Scala API quickly. There are other books that cover theory, discuss all 4 language APIs simultaneously, and are API documentation narratives (e.g. Chapter 4 will cover all the DataFrame methods in alphabetical order). Most people don't have the attention span for huge books.
* Target middle school reading level. Short sentences & simple words. Technical audiences want information and don't care much about literary prose.
* Organize your code snippets in a repo, so it's easy to update your book
I got some offers from publishers, but went the self-publishing route cause I didn't think that a publisher could give too much valuable feedback on such a technical topic. Lots of my blog readers told me my blogs are easy to follow, so I felt confident I didn't need a professional editor. Publishers pay 20% royalties and self publishing lets you keep 80%+, so you should only go with a publisher if they can add that extra value.
Writing a book was a great experience for me. It's an easy way to train folks who are new to Spark. Several folks have emailed me, told me they can't afford the book, and I've sent them free copies. Don't think writing books is a great way to make money, but it's great if you have altruistic motives.