Scott Bain on Writing and Publishing a Book
Scott Bain has an interested blog entry called Writing and Publishing a Book:
I recently completed the process of getting a book published ("Emergent Design"). It was my first time doing this, and I thought it might be valuable to some of you if I shared some of the things I learned about writing a book, and about the publishing world.
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Now, it turns out that I made a bit of a mistake, but got lucky.
The mistake? I wrote the book, then went to the publisher. This can lead to a real disaster. You may have written a beautiful, smart, compelling book for which there is no market whatsoever. Even a great book that nobody wants to read is worthless.
In my case, I knew there was a market because the market had asked me to write the book. Still, if I'd gotten involved with the publisher earlier, several things would have happened:
- They would have kept me on a writing schedule. From time to time I got lackadaisical about getting the book done, and the publisher would have held my feet to the fire a little. That would have been healthy for me.
- They would have reviewed chapters as I wrote them, which would give me early and frequent feedback. In other words, I would have gained all the benefits of using a Lean/Agile approach.
- They would have helped me write. I didn't realize that publishers have extensive support mechanisms to help their authors; access to peer-review, copy editors, technical editors, and so on.
Good to know - thanks Scott! I've been thinking about writing a book again and was actually considering writing first and shopping for a publisher later. I guess that's the wrong approach eh?
Posted by Jeff Genender on March 13, 2008 at 09:54 AM MDT #
Not only that, Jeff. When you start to write a book you have to be able to afford writing full time in order to have the time it needs to do the writing. One won't be able to work as a busy consultant or contract developer and write the book on a schedule on evenings and weekends. Your family needs you too as well.
So writing a book on your own schedule when the publisher doesn't pay you for writing is certainly a good idea. If the publishers is paying, then writing the book is the job. Either one.
Posted by Stephan Schwab on March 13, 2008 at 05:36 PM MDT #
Solid points.
One thing I often say when talking about testing and design applies here, I think.
"Anything is acceptable if the risk is acceptable"
So, the risk of writing the book beforehand and then contacting the publisher is twofold:
1) You may write a book that cannot be effectively marketed
2) You may encounter a lot of re-work once the publisher gets it.
If these risks can be mitigated to an acceptable degree (in your own case), then I suppose writing up-front is acceptable too.
I'll just add that I found the collaborative process with the publisher to be such a positive thing, that I would not mind doing it again, and more. I may be unique here...
-Scott-
Posted by Scott Bain on April 01, 2008 at 09:01 AM MDT #