books by clc contributors

[BruceS]

I've seen a number of critiques by some posters of books written by
others (contributors or not), and this has probably been done to
death. I'm interested in the other side of it. I've helped edit a
technical book, and that was enough to make the *writing* of one look
downright painful. People have told me I should write a book, but so
far I've always veered away. If you've written a technical book, how
was the experience for you? How well did it sell, and how has that
affected your experience of writing? Would you do it again? Is it
something (like teaching) that you really only do for the joy of it,
or does it pay decently? How did you choose the specific subject area
you wrote about?

That's a lot of questions, so I'll quit there.

 

[Eric Sosman]

I've seen a number of critiques by some posters of books written by
others (contributors or not), and this has probably been done to
death. I'm interested in the other side of it. I've helped edit a
technical book, and that was enough to make the *writing* of one look
downright painful. People have told me I should write a book, but so
far I've always veered away. If you've written a technical book, how
was the experience for you? How well did it sell, and how has that
affected your experience of writing? Would you do it again? Is it
something (like teaching) that you really only do for the joy of it,
or does it pay decently? How did you choose the specific subject area
you wrote about?

That's a lot of questions, so I'll quit there.

Your questions might get better answers in newsgroups with
"writer" or "writing" or "author" somewhere in the title, but I
don't frequent them and can't say which are worth while and which
aren't.

FWIW I was a co-author of a technical book in the IBM Redbook
series. The experience of sitting in an IBM facility under the
lash of an IBM-provided project leader was not "reflective," but
certainly kept extracting the daily quota of pages from the team.
Lots of information (and way too many screen shots, IMHO), not as
much "flow" as I'd have liked, but we got the book done. It "sold"
(for free download) pretty well in its first few years.

 

[Seebs]

I've seen a number of critiques by some posters of books written by
others (contributors or not), and this has probably been done to
death. I'm interested in the other side of it. I've helped edit a
technical book, and that was enough to make the *writing* of one look
downright painful. People have told me I should write a book, but so
far I've always veered away. If you've written a technical book, how
was the experience for you? How well did it sell, and how has that
affected your experience of writing? Would you do it again? Is it
something (like teaching) that you really only do for the joy of it,
or does it pay decently? How did you choose the specific subject area
you wrote about?

Mine wasn't on C, but I've done a lot of writing about C.

I really enjoy writing. That said, it doesn't pay, at least for me, as well
as programming. Writing a book paid relatively poorly; writing articles
actually paid extremely well per hour, but I couldn't get enough hours for
it to be a viable career.

In my case, the tools were pretty awful, and I hated them. Actually, it's
more complicated. I've got credit for one book done with FrameMaker, which I
disliked but it was livable. I also did one in Word, which was unbelievably
hateful and frustrating. I did one in DocBook, which was quite pleasant to
use (but the publisher got cold feet). And I've done books for work both
in DocBook and FrameMaker. Of them:

* Tools like DocBook, coupled with the ability to write your own tools,
are quite pleasant.
* FrameMaker is full of stupidity and poor design choices, but is basically
a tool designed for writing.
* Word is an abomination, and any attempt to make it scale to the task of
creating books is doomed to tragic failure.

If I were writing another book, I would probably register Scrivener (an OS X
app that is designed EXCLUSIVELY for the task of creating and managing text),
use that to do the writing, then do formatting as a completely separate pass.
It has been consistently rewarding to me to separate those tasks.

-s

 

[Ben Pfaff]

If you've written a technical book, how was the experience for
you? How well did it sell, and how has that affected your
experience of writing? Would you do it again?

I contributed a chapter to _C Unleashed_. It took more time than
it was worth: I only made about $1000 (before taxes) and spent, I
imagine, hundreds of hours on it. The reviewing was very poor
also (although I hear that other contributors had better
editors).

In the future, I am more likely to release my writings for free
on the Internet than to write them for a publisher, at least if
the publisher gets all the rights. I hear a lot more about GNU
libavl (which is sort of an online book of mine) than I ever do
about C Unleashed.

 

[BruceS]

How was the experience? Interesting, even fascinating. Frustrating.
Tedious. All of those.

How well did it sell? Compared to J K Rowling, not terribly well.
Compared to other technical books of its type, apparently it did okay.

Would I do it again? Maybe. Last time I was asked, however, I said no.

Does it pay decently? No, not really (although I don't suppose Knuth is
too upset by the size of his royalty cheques). But it can have indirect
benefits. For at least two of my contracts, I got the interview on the
strength of the client's curiosity about what an author looks like in
"real life".

That's funny. I've been planning to put a picture of myself on my
LinkedIn page, but maybe I'd be better off leaving it empty, to stir
curiosity. "Hmm, I wonder what a CAD guy looks like. Probably pretty
weird. We should contract with him."

How did I choose the subject area? Sams had a proposal for a book on C
for intermediate/advanced programmers, but the proposing author changed
his mind and dropped out after reading the ToC reviews. Now Sams had a
proposal and a budget but no author, so they asked me if I would be
prepared to step in. I suggested taking on Lawrence Kirby as
co-lead-author, and it turned out they were already talking to him too,
so they grabbed that idea and ran with it. So the subject area was sort
of chosen for us, really - but the detailed TOC is more or less my own
creation, although there are a few things I wanted there which got left
out, a very few things I didn't want that got added, and a couple of
things that everybody simply forgot about until it was too late.

My underlying rationale, however, was that - with almost no exceptions -
I wanted the book to be about C, not about C-on-Windows or C-on-Linux or
C-on-Mac or C-on-mainframe. We did pop a sockets chapter in there
somewhere when nobody was looking, though.

That sounds a lot like software projects. The client has an idea of
what he wants, you get to decide a lot of how to write that, you put
in some extra pieces that you think make sense, and occasional pieces
get forgotten.

If I had the chance to write CU again, I'd do it very, very differently.

The one to throw away? I'd say that about a lot of the software I've
written, too.

 

[BruceS]

     Your questions might get better answers in newsgroups with
"writer" or "writing" or "author" somewhere in the title, but I
don't frequent them and can't say which are worth while and which
aren't.

Ah, yes, the thread really is OT here. I apologize, and will try to
avoid that in future. Thanks for pointing it out.

     FWIW I was a co-author of a technical book in the IBM Redbook
series.  The experience of sitting in an IBM facility under the
lash of an IBM-provided project leader was not "reflective," but
certainly kept extracting the daily quota of pages from the team.
Lots of information (and way too many screen shots, IMHO), not as
much "flow" as I'd have liked, but we got the book done.  It "sold"
(for free download) pretty well in its first few years.

It seems that the volume of downloads would be rewarding, even without
income. It's great to have your work appreciated.

 

[BruceS]

Mine wasn't on C, but I've done a lot of writing about C.

I really enjoy writing.  That said, it doesn't pay, at least for me, as well
as programming.  Writing a book paid relatively poorly; writing articles
actually paid extremely well per hour, but I couldn't get enough hours for
it to be a viable career.

In my case, the tools were pretty awful, and I hated them.  Actually, it's
more complicated.  I've got credit for one book done with FrameMaker, which I
disliked but it was livable.  I also did one in Word, which was unbelievably
hateful and frustrating.  I did one in DocBook, which was quite pleasant to
use (but the publisher got cold feet).  And I've done books for work both
in DocBook and FrameMaker.  Of them:

* Tools like DocBook, coupled with the ability to write your own tools,
  are quite pleasant.
* FrameMaker is full of stupidity and poor design choices, but is basically
  a tool designed for writing.
* Word is an abomination, and any attempt to make it scale to the task of
  creating books is doomed to tragic failure.

If I were writing another book, I would probably register Scrivener (an OS X
app that is designed EXCLUSIVELY for the task of creating and managing text),
use that to do the writing, then do formatting as a completely separate pass.
It has been consistently rewarding to me to separate those tasks.

I hadn't even considered the problems involved in the specific tools
used. It sounds like that makes a huge difference.

Thanks to all who responded. As this thread really is OT here, I'll
try to make this my last post on it. Just don't count on me
remembering this and not starting something else OT.

 

[Dann Corbit]

I've seen a number of critiques by some posters of books written by
others (contributors or not), and this has probably been done to
death. I'm interested in the other side of it. I've helped edit a
technical book, and that was enough to make the *writing* of one look
downright painful. People have told me I should write a book, but so
far I've always veered away. If you've written a technical book, how
was the experience for you? How well did it sell, and how has that
affected your experience of writing? Would you do it again? Is it
something (like teaching) that you really only do for the joy of it,
or does it pay decently? How did you choose the specific subject area
you wrote about?

That's a lot of questions, so I'll quit there.

It's great resume fluff.
;-)

 

[James Harris]

Ah, yes, the thread really is OT here.  I apologize, and will try to
avoid that in future.  Thanks for pointing it out.

I don't think your question is off topic. Where else would you ask
what books were written by comp.lang.c contributors?

James

 

[Eric Sosman]

[...]
FWIW I was a co-author of a technical book in the IBM Redbook
series. [...] It "sold"
(for free download) pretty well in its first few years.

It seems that the volume of downloads would be rewarding, even without
income. It's great to have your work appreciated.

An added benefit: There's an annual conference/trade show for
the IBM product that was the book's topic. People wear all kinds
of buttons and badges and bedizenry at trade shows, and one of mine
says "I Am A Redbook Author." When my former employer's sales folks
would call me in to meet with a customer or prospect ("We've arranged
for you to meet our guru!"), I'd sit there wearing my Redbook button
and my conference badge with the "Speaker" label and try to look like
a Pro From Dover. If I'd had a long, Gandalf-style beard, I'd have
stroked it sagely (probably when completely at sea).

I've never found another setting where "I'm an author!" was
of the slightest use. A source of modest pride, though: Yes.

 

[Seebs]

I've never found another setting where "I'm an author!" was
of the slightest use. A source of modest pride, though: Yes.

It can occasionally be useful in the same way as any other credential; a way
to short-cut through some of the tedious work of establishing that you're
not an idiot so someone will listen to you. It's not completely reliable,
though, as idiots can get published.

-s

 

[Dennis \(Icarus\)]

On Feb 26, 10:14 am, Seebs <[email protected]> wrote:

I hadn't even considered the problems involved in the specific tools
used. It sounds like that makes a huge difference.

Thanks to all who responded. As this thread really is OT here, I'll
try to make this my last post on it. Just don't count on me
remembering this and not starting something else OT.

Yeah, it might get in the way of the latest spinoza1111 rant.

Dennis

 

[Phred Phungus]

I have the unequal experience of reading about clc in _Unleashed_ and
finding the authors here. Lawrence Kirby and Jack Klein were hanging
around back then. So Dann Corbit became the sort guy, because that was
his chapter.

Heathfield described clc as a "rough and tumble place." I was hooked.

I contributed a chapter to _C Unleashed_. It took more time than
it was worth: I only made about $1000 (before taxes) and spent, I
imagine, hundreds of hours on it. The reviewing was very poor
also (although I hear that other contributors had better
editors).

Your chapter is eminently readable. I think it's gotta be tough to find
editors who know the jargon and want to work for the type of peanuts you
were making.

In the future, I am more likely to release my writings for free
on the Internet than to write them for a publisher, at least if
the publisher gets all the rights. I hear a lot more about GNU
libavl (which is sort of an online book of mine) than I ever do
about C Unleashed.

I don't mean to compound your frustration here, but is this library from
the avl that came on the source disc?

What rights do you mean here? Isn't it somwewhat contrary to the gnu
license to restrict distribution?

 

[Ben Pfaff]

I don't mean to compound your frustration here, but is this library
from the avl that came on the source disc?

No, it is at http://adtinfo.org.

What rights do you mean here? Isn't it somwewhat contrary to the gnu
license to restrict distribution?

I mean, I signed over the copyright and other rights to the text
of that chapter to the publisher.

 

[jacob navia]

BruceS a écrit :

I've seen a number of critiques by some posters of books written by
others (contributors or not), and this has probably been done to
death. I'm interested in the other side of it. I've helped edit a
technical book, and that was enough to make the *writing* of one look
downright painful. People have told me I should write a book, but so
far I've always veered away. If you've written a technical book, how
was the experience for you?

It is a lot of work


How well did it sell, and how has that

affected your experience of writing?

This book has helped my compiler system to be a long time
hit in the downloaded copies side: the book provides a lot of
documentation about C, windows, and some other subjects. It has
helped make lcc-win popular


Would you do it again?

Yes

Is it

something (like teaching) that you really only do for the joy of it,
or does it pay decently?

lcc-win has payed OK. The book is distributed at no charge, like
the software

How did you choose the specific subject area

you wrote about?

I wanted to document the user side of my software.
I wrte another, explaining the technical side but it wasn't as populaer
and I did not go on with it.

You can download it with the software at

http://www.q-software-solutions.de

jacob

 

[Malcolm McLean]

If you've written a technical book, how was the experience for you?  

It's a lot of intensive effort. Interestingly, it seems to enhance
productivity in other things. The times when I'm writing are also the
times when I'm getting a lot done at work.

How well did it sell, and how has that affected your experience of writing?  

I wrote "MiniBasic, how to write a script interpreter" and "Basic
Algorithms". MiniBasic sells ten copies for every one of Basic
Algorithms. However neither book sells spectacularly well. I get a
trickle of sales and it's rare for a week to go by without someone
buying a copy, on the other hand I've never yet managed to make a sale
on every single day of a week.

Would you do it again?  Is it
something (like teaching) that you really only do for the joy of it,
or does it pay decently?  How did you choose the specific subject area
you wrote about?

I offered Basic Algorithms to Wiley, who didn't reply, and to
O'Reilley, who told me that they can't sell C books, and that the
target audience wasn't closely enough defined. However they said they
liked the style of the book and asked me if I would like to submit a
proposal for another one, in a more modern language, and on a narrower
topic. So far I haven't had any really good ideas, and I'm just
starting a new job. Also, there's a work of fiction I'd like to write.
[OT if anyone wants to preview a children's boarding school story,
just contact me or reply here].

 

[Richard Bos]

I've never found another setting where "I'm an author!" was
of the slightest use. A source of modest pride, though: Yes.

'Tis pleasant, sure, to see one's name in print;
A book's a book, although there's nothing in't.
-- George Gordon, Lord Byron,
English Bards and Scottish Reviewers

Richard

 

[Phred Phungus]

'Tis pleasant, sure, to see one's name in print;
A book's a book, although there's nothing in't.
-- George Gordon, Lord Byron,
English Bards and Scottish Reviewers

Richard

Nice. If I were saying this, I would make 'print' rhyme with "didn't,"
as said by a black female waving her finger at you.

"Oh no you didn't."

The second d is not pronounced at all. This gives it two syllables,
which is better for the meter.

 

[Phred Phungus]

No, it is at http://adtinfo.org.

Can you say a few words about glib? In particular, is GTK+ something
relevant to ubuntu?

I mean, I signed over the copyright and other rights to the text
of that chapter to the publisher.

So you can't use your own tree chapter. Get the same crew together for
the same material, but derange the association between author and
chapter. Publish it exerting your own rights.