Adam Salviani | Editing and Writing Technical Books. The many flavors of Editors. Equal parts project manager, “information architect”, and technologist.

1. Editing and Writing Technical
Books
Robbie Allen
rallen@rallenhome.com
http://www.rallenhome.com/
January 26, 2006

2. Bio
• Technical Leader at Cisco Systems
• Editor/Author at O’Reilly Media
• Grad student at MIT
• For more on my books and
blogs, see:
http://www.rallenhome.com/

3. • Equal parts project manager, “information
architect”, and technologist
• Different types of editors:
– Acquisition
• Sign books
– Technical
• Review books for technical accuracy
– Developmental
• Edit and manage books from signing to final
draft
– Copy
• Check for correct grammar and spelling, good
content flow, consistent use of styles, etc.
– Production
• Manage the book from final draft to
publication
The many flavors of Editors

4. Life as an Acquisitions Editor
• Stay current with technical
trends
• Research new book ideas
• Find authors
• Negotiate contracts

5. Life as a Developmental Editor
• Work closely with authors
– Weekly concalls, frequent emails
• Manage author (ever changing)
delivery schedules
• Read and re-read a LOT of chapters
• Search for good technical reviewers
• Manage technical reviewers (ever
changing) schedules
• Meet deadlines!

6. Life as a Technical Editor
• Shares some of the responsibilities
with Developmental Editor
• Primary focus is on ensuring the
book meets the needs of target
audience
– Technically accurate?
– Well organized and presented?
• May help with tech review

7. Life as a Copy Editor
• Review entire manuscript,
looking for:
– grammatical errors
– spelling errors
– logical errors
– formatting inconsistencies
• Involvement per book: 2-4
weeks

8. Life as a Production Editor
• Manage production process
• Create production schedule
• Work with graphics artists on
any figure issues
• Work with dev editor on front
and back cover copy and
index
• Incorporate QC feedback
(QC1 and QC2)

9. A Recent Production Schedule
3/7In-stock date
3/3Bound-book date
2/23Book to printer
2/22OTD QC
2/21Cover to printer
2/20Page estimate complete
2/14Index complete
2/9–2/10Index review
2/17Enter QC2 edits
2/16–2/17QC2
2/15Pagebreaking
2/9–2/14Enter QC1 edits
1/13Back cover copy due to Adam
1/26–2/8Index
1/26–2/8QC1/Proofread
1/16–1/25Enter copyedits
12/28–1/19Copyedit review
12/20–1/13Copyedit
DateTask

10. References
• “The Forest for the Trees: An
Editor’s Advice to Writers”
• Writing Process
– http://www.praxagora.com/andyo/professional/process.
• Writing for O'Reilly
http://www.oreilly.com/oreilly/author/intro.html
• Dave Taylor on the Writing
Business
http://
www.askdavetaylor.com/cat_the_writing_business.html

11. Q/A
• How do you get a job as an
editor?

12. Backup – Writing Technical Books

13. The Joys of Being an Author
• See your name in print
• Make money
– More on this later
• Gain instant credibility
– Whether it is deserved or not
• Educate people

14. The Toils of Being an Author
• Writing is hard work
• Writing a book is a lot of hard work
– Your friends and family may not like
you very much during the process
• You'll become an Amazon addict
• People will think you know it all
about the topic
• Some people will be jealous
• And bad reviews

15. Common myths about being an
Author
• You must be rich
• You are an expert
• You can write well or have
a background in writing

16. How to get started as an Author
• Start a blog
– Short
– Doesn't pay (besides AdSense)
– Published instantly
• Write an online article
– Short
– Doesn't pay that well (per article)
– Published quickly
• Write a magazine article
– Longer than online articles
– Pays well (per word)
– Can take a long time to publish

17. How to get started as an Author
(cont’d)
• Become a technical reviewer for a book
– Lot of work (if you do it right)
– Pay varies, but generally not very well for first timers
– Your name in the acknowledgements
– Get a glimpse of the publishing process
• Contribute a chapter to a book
– Amount of work varies depending on the content
and timeline
– Pay varies, often by page or flat fee for the
chapter
– Get a better understanding of the publishing
process
• Write a book
– More work than you think it will be (yes, that's a lot)
– Pay is good, but not in relation to the amount of
work you put in
– Long time between when you start writing and the
book is in stores

18. Create a proposal
• Some basic information:
– Summary
– Target audience
– Detailed outline
– Page count (this is hard; give a
guestimate)
– Schedule (2 chapters, 50%, 100%,
final draft)
– Biography
– Writing sample (sample chapter if
possible)
• More detail the better

19. Picking a publisher
• Start off picky
• Does the publisher have a
good reputation?
• Does the publisher have a
good bookstore presence?
• Is the publisher going to publish
competing titles?
• Is the publisher’s contract
overly complex?

20. Pitching a proposal
• Most proposal submissions are
by email (a few are by snail
mail)
• Do you know someone in the
business that can refer you?
• Agents can help
• Ask for a response by a certain
date

21. Small sampling of publishers
• O’Reilly:
http://www.oreilly.com/oreilly/author/intro.html
• Addison-Wesley:
http://www.awprofessional.com/about/write_for_us.asp
• APress:
http://www.apress.com/about/writeForUs.html
• Peachpit:
http://www.peachpit.com/about/write_for_us.asp
• SAMS:
http://www.samspublishing.com/about/write_for_us.asp
• Osborne:
http://shop.osborne.com/osborne/aboutus/writeforus.shtml
• No Starch Press:
http://www.nostarch.com/releases/book_proposal.pdf
• Syngress:
http://www.syngress.com/authors/
• Wiley/Dummies:
http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-100097.html
• Sybex:
http://sybex.com/sybexbooks.nsf/f8b757a5c6780f3b8825696100043e5b/0960

22. Do you need an agent?
• The short answer is no. At least not
to get your first book published.
• Agents take a cut of your royalties
(which aren't much to begin with)
• Agents are good for getting
corporate whitepaper gigs and
pitching large projects (like a book
series)
• Agents do the following:
– Shop your proposal around
– Review your contract and help you
negotiate better terms

23. Signing a book
• Publisher contracts should be
understandable to the layperson
(many are not)
• Publisher generally retains
copyrights, but it is a bargaining
chip
• Avoid non-competes at all costs
• Make sure you get a “right of first
refusal” for the next edition
• Other tips:
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/what_makes_a_go

24. The process of writing a book
• You do initial research
• You start writing
• You do more research
• You do more writing
• Your editor provides feedback on
your chapters
• You incorporate the feedback
• Your editor sends your chapters out
for technical review
• You incorporate the feedback from
tech review
• The editor may edit the chapters one
last time
• You do final clean-up

25. The process of writing a book
(cont’d)
• Copyeditors make (mostly) grammatical
corrections. Your editor may ask you to
address some of the copyeditor comments if
he can't.
• Both you and the editor review the first
quality check (QC1). This entails reading
through the entire book again to look for any
leftover errors.
• The editor reviews the second quality check
(QC2). This is typically a quick pass through
the manuscript looking for anything grossly
out of whack.
• You review the index and front and back
cover copy
• Your job is done!
• How long does this take? 1-3 years (or
longer)

26. From writer to marketer
• Switching hats
• Go on a book tour, e.g.
http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/?cat=8
• Sign books at a local bookstore
• Speak at conferences or user groups
• Create a website to support the book
• Participate on forums
• Put info about your book in your email
signature
• Ask friends, family, co-workers, and
everyone else to write reviews for the book
• Engineering Amazon

27. What makes a book successful?
• The book must be useful (duh)
• Must be the top 1 or 2 in the category
• Need a large audience
• Need successful publisher and self
marketing
• Keep writing

28. How much can you make?
• Typical advance: $10,000 spread over a series of 4
payments
• Typical royalty: 10% on the wholesale price of the book
• Wholesale price typically 50% of retail price
– $50 x 50% = $25 (publisher gets for each book – not
accounting costs)
– $25 x 10% = $2.50 (author gets for each book)
• Have to “earn out” your advance before you see any
royalties (can take a year or more)
• Can earn anywhere from $15,000 - $60,000 over the life
of a book (2-5 years)
• Can help jumpstart a consulting or training career
• Book publishing cost breakdown:
http://www.oreilly.com/oreilly/author/ch03sb.html
• Tim O’Reilly’s perspective:
http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/ask_tim/2003/salesexpe

29. References
• The Forest for the Trees: An
Editor’s Advice to Writers
• What it’s like to write
– http://www.praxagora.com/andyo/professional/process.
• Writing for O'Reilly
http://www.oreilly.com/oreilly/author/intro.html
• Dave Taylor on the Writing
Business
http://
www.askdavetaylor.com/cat_the_writing_business.html