[HN Gopher] How to Write a Technical Book
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       How to Write a Technical Book
        
       Author : crecker
       Score  : 85 points
       Date   : 2021-04-16 09:11 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (serhack.me)
 (TXT) w3m dump (serhack.me)
        
       | polska wrote:
       | The article I was looking for! Can you please expand the section
       | of "finding a publisher"? I was trying to write a proposal for a
       | technical book but I don't know where to start.
        
         | wdb wrote:
         | See also: https://www.manning.com/write-for-us
        
         | wdb wrote:
         | Typically the book proposal discusses the target audience, why
         | you are the right person to write about the book, how it
         | differs from other books on the subject, why the subject makes
         | sense to write about (e.g. popular subject or technology) One
         | of the things I am looking in when I get book proposals for
         | review
        
       | flaie wrote:
       | This is a good article!
       | 
       | For me, the best way is just to start writing it. I've written a
       | book about a Java library last year named "Practical Vavr" [1], I
       | had the idea since some weeks/months and with the COVID situation
       | having time at home, just told to myself now is the time.
       | 
       | Didn't thought a lot about anything, except for how the book
       | should be laid out, I thought the process was interesting so I
       | went full on it, discovered leanpub and other websites that makes
       | the process easy as just writing some Markdown.
       | 
       | I think that the hardest thing is the marketing around the book,
       | how to tell the world you wrote it and why they should be
       | interested in reading it (and buying it). I just posted it here
       | and there on the web (reddit, twitter mainly), didn't made a lot
       | of fuss about it, I don't know how anyway.
       | 
       | In the end it was more about the experience of writing one and
       | finishing it, than making big money (even if I was able to reach
       | almost 100 people totally unknown people who were kind enough to
       | trust that the content would be good and buy it).
       | 
       | [1]: https://leanpub.com/practical-vavr
        
         | crecker wrote:
         | Thanks for the feedback of the article! I appreciated it :- )
         | 
         | Writing a technical book is a nice experience if you feel
         | confident. If you have the passion and dedication to write,
         | it'll be a journey with the "side-effect" of earning exposure
         | and if you're lucky, also money. But you should not write a
         | technical book for money (set as the first goal).
         | 
         | Marketing a book, especially a technical one, is difficult and
         | requires time. Since most of the times it's suitable for a
         | niche, you have to look for people and to explain why reading
         | your book would be worth it. Does it contain any special
         | feature that makes it unique? A particular focus? A well-
         | written introduction?
         | 
         | I'd like to discuss about the points you marked. "The best way
         | to start a book is writing". When you have the inspiration of
         | writing, it seems "you do not have to think too much about
         | details, a possible outline". It's partially correct and wrong.
         | On one hand, to publish a book, you need content and what's the
         | best way to create content? Yes, it's writing! On the other
         | hand, people are not looking at your book for "content", BUT
         | for highly quality content. Thus, not only you have to write
         | the content, you have also to think about the structure, the
         | outline, the key-points, and many others element that keeps the
         | reader "on" your book.
        
       | dangoor wrote:
       | Edit to add: Sorry, I should have commented on the original
       | article. I like this article and think it presents a good basis
       | for the early part of the process for many people... I wrote the
       | comment below because my book largely picks up after the point
       | covered here.
       | 
       | I'm in the midst (about 18k words in) of writing a book about
       | publishing specifically for technical people. I do talk about
       | traditional publishing and self-publishing, with most of the
       | words focused on actionable advice to avoid common pitfalls when
       | self-publishing.
       | 
       | I've been previewing some of the information (not in the form in
       | the book, but just some of the topics) on my newsletter:
       | 
       | https://kevindangoor.substack.com/
        
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