Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Christopher Schmitt <schmitt AT christopher.org>]

On 10/13/03 12:55 PM, "Tanner Lovelace" <lovelace AT wayfarer.org> wrote:
> Specifically, I'm curious about how people get into writing technical
> books?  I assume you probably didn't start off writing a book as your
> first project, but even so, how did you get into it?  Did you start
> out writing short articles?  Giving seminars at local tech groups?
> Teaching? etc...  If you have a good idea for a book (or even something
> written already), how do you go about finding a publisher?  (or is it
> better to publish it yourself?)  What else needs to be asked?  Thanks.

I started out writing articles at first. Basically, I would get an idea for
an article that *I* wanted to see published somewhere online. If there was a
topic or a new angle on a subject matter that I hadn't seen covered, I would
throw together a short proposal and pester editors until they said yes.

After a couple of published articles, my name got passed around and I was
asked to take part in a Cool Site in a Day contest at a web conference. I
assembled a team and went to San Francisco. That's where I met Steven for
the first time--he was actually on the judging panel for the content. (And,
I'm happy to say my team won that day.)

After that stint and conference, I met some wonderful people who had already
written books--and would continue to write books. I kept in touch and one
day, I got an offer to help out an author with a book that needed some
chapters that covered HTML, JavaScript and CSS.

Since I've always wanted to write a trade book since 1997, I jumped at the
chance.

After that I've either contributed or worked on three books. I have two more
on the way that I hope will get published (knock on wood). One is on
Photoshop CS and another is on CSS (yes, another book about CSS!).

Personally, I love the process of writing books. I love preparing, writing,
revising and editing a piece of work that, I hope, people in my industry
will find useful. 

Don't get me wrong: I'm not a big fan of having a project pulled out from
under me or a publisher going belly-up like Peer and not getting paid.

That's why I recommend that people don't do it. The process is rather long,
tedious, filled with opportunities to fail and, as Steven pointed out,
low-paying. But other than that, hey, sky's the limit.

Best,
Christopher Schmitt


-- 

Designing CSS Web Pages http://www.cssbook.com/

"Christopher shows us how CSS is more important and touches on more of the
Web than we may have realized, and how it can be used to make Web design
easier, from the first conceptual sketch to the last design tweak." -- Eric
A. Meyer, Standards Evangelist with Netscape Communications