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Writing a Technical Book for Manning

tunetheweb.com

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Re: Writing a Technical Book for Manning

#51

Post by tunetheweb »

newscracker wrote: post #49
mjcohen wrote: post #40

Found a few typos: "if you ever what to write a book," - "want" "I needed to tke care of including images" - "take" "in an attempt to illicit feedback" - "elicit" "likely won't actually be approved until early 2010, " - "2020" (probably) "copy-editing to correct grammar, and spelling," - "grammar and spelling" "Manning do a lot of promotion" - "does" "a random random tip of this list isshown" - "random", "is shown" "…

> "Manning do a lot of promotion" - "does" I'm going to nitpick. The original sentence is grammatically correct in the UK and some other non-U.S. English speaking parts. I know this may sound very weird, but it's all fine and correct somewhere else, treating companies and establishments as plural.

Yeah I was trying to figure out what to do with that one. In the end I “corrected” it as suggested but could have gone either way depending whether Manning is a singular company or a plural collection of people.

Re: Writing a Technical Book for Manning

#52

Post by kerng »

I'm curious about publishing a book, what are the typical length requirements? I have seen some books with 400+ pages. Is that what publishers require? Anyone has an experience where page count was much less?

Re: Writing a Technical Book for Manning

#53

Post by kerng »

raboukhalil wrote: post #29

If you want to hear about the alternative approach of self-publishing, check out my post about how I wrote a WebAssembly book in 200 hours: https://medium.com/@robaboukhalil/how-i-wrote-a-technical-bo... This is my second self-published book and I've loved this approach. It lets me focus on writing and marketing, and I get to craft every aspect of the book.

Did you know what typical minimum page count requirements are? I have a non-technical, more program management focused book with about 100 pages. Was told by a publisher it's too short... wondering how you approached that when self publishing, since your post mentions it's about 100-150 pages. Did you get any feedback from readers that it is too short?

Re: Writing a Technical Book for Manning

#54

Post by raboukhalil »

kerng wrote: post #53
raboukhalil wrote: post #29

If you want to hear about the alternative approach of self-publishing, check out my post about how I wrote a WebAssembly book in 200 hours: https://medium.com/@robaboukhalil/how-i-wrote-a-technical-bo... This is my second self-published book and I've loved this approach. It lets me focus on writing and marketing, and I get to craft every aspect of the book.

Did you know what typical minimum page count requirements are? I have a non-technical, more program management focused book with about 100 pages. Was told by a publisher it's too short... wondering how you approached that when self publishing, since your post mentions it's about 100-150 pages. Did you get any feedback from readers that it is too short?

I have not received feedback that my book was too short. In my own experience, I've rarely ever completed a technical book--in fact, I've often wished they were shorter!

Re: Writing a Technical Book for Manning

#55

Post by detaro »

newscracker wrote: post #48
4thaccount wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. They still make content, but I believe it's all digital. I don't think they create paper books anymore. Is that incorrect?

No, it's not "just digital". It's subscription-only through Safari Online! You can "stream" books and learning videos from there, but you'd never own one. You cannot buy a DRM free O'Reilly eBook anymore, unless it's from one of those Humble Bundle sales (where the selection may or may not suit your needs). I just stopped supporting O'Reilly when it went subscription only, and I'm guessing there are lots of people an…

You can buy them from all kinds of book sellers: https://www.ebooks.com/en-de/searchapp/searchresults.net?drm... (random example that allowed filtering by DRM-free)

Just not from them directly.

Re: Writing a Technical Book for Manning

#56

Post by kerng »

raboukhalil wrote: post #54
kerng wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you know what typical minimum page count requirements are? I have a non-technical, more program management focused book with about 100 pages. Was told by a publisher it's too short... wondering how you approached that when self publishing, since your post mentions it's about 100-150 pages. Did you get any feedback from readers that it is too short?

I have not received feedback that my book was too short. In my own experience, I've rarely ever completed a technical book--in fact, I've often wished they were shorter!

I have the same takeaway, many technical books with 300+ pages seem more like reference material rather then being focused on teaching the reader.

Re: Writing a Technical Book for Manning

#57

Post by Kihashi »

StavrosK wrote: post #3
danpalmer wrote: post #2

Great post, lots of detail. After reading this I would be more likely to want to publish with and buy from Manning. I’ve been a technical reviewer for Packt, and since doing so would avoid buying any of their books. As a customer of Mannings’, they seem better, and seeing the inside of the process and the amount of review that happens, I think they sound great all things considered.

Why would you avoid Packt?

I avoid them after they asked me to write about a topic that I didn't even have on my resume. I also found the quality of the books that I had purchased to not be very high.

> Packt is planning to publish a book titled as 'SQLAlchemy cookbook' which would be a 300 page book and in the process of seeking potential authors to work on this book I also read through your resume [Link]. It is evident that you have an expertise in this area and as such seems to be an ideal candidate to author this book for us.

They linked to my actual resume that had 0 mention of SQLAlchemy. At the time, I had also graduated less than a year before, which was clearly mentioned on my resume as well.

Re: Writing a Technical Book for Manning

#58

Post by newscracker »

detaro wrote: post #55
newscracker wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's not "just digital". It's subscription-only through Safari Online! You can "stream" books and learning videos from there, but you'd never own one. You cannot buy a DRM free O'Reilly eBook anymore, unless it's from one of those Humble Bundle sales (where the selection may or may not suit your needs). I just stopped supporting O'Reilly when it went subscription only, and I'm guessing there are lots of people an…

You can buy them from all kinds of book sellers: https://www.ebooks.com/en-de/searchapp/searchresults.net?drm... (random example that allowed filtering by DRM-free) Just not from them directly.

Not everywhere, which defeats the point. When O'Reilly used to sell ebooks directly, it was available a lot more widely.
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