Reply to: Do I look that thick? Bobs getting my job

[Gentile]

She's not wrong.

Btw, I thought writing the ONLY book on the topic was going to be a cracker, as did the vendor Shame the product bombed.

Kindle? - you could republish it yourself (provided you've retained copyright), and it might become The Tome of reference in your niche field.

[Scoobos]

She's not wrong.

Btw, I thought writing the ONLY book on the topic was going to be a cracker, as did the vendor Shame the product bombed.

[Gentile]

If you wrote one for a non-niche product you might get better returns.

I think the main return you can expect from writing a technical book is to be able to say to a ClientCo: "I literally wrote the book on this topic". A marketing thing; no more and no less. Also, there is the nice sense of deep knowledge that comes from sitting down and really thinking about how to explain those things you know to do to somebody else.

[Doggy Styles]

What sysman said . I've been here and done this and its an absolute timesink for very little return (I wrote a vendor approved book which was a user guide for sysadmins for a niche product)

If you wrote one for a non-niche product you might get better returns.

[Scoobos]

I've written huge chunks of technical manuals but not in my name. I know one chap who wrote a technical "How to" book. It took him an awful lot of time and he even took some time off work for a final push to get it out.

It was a good book and I still refer to it occasionally. He obviously did a lot of research and testing for it.

Niche market though and I doubt whether he saw much money out of it.

What sysman said . I've been here and done this and its an absolute timesink for very little return (I wrote a vendor approved book which was a user guide for sysadmins for a niche product)

[Sysman]

Yes, I like writing fiction too: short stories. That Arthur C Clarke book in my collection is a belter for inspiration.

The other type of book I was thinking most techies have inside them are technical "how to" books, in the Wrox: Programmer to Programmer genre. I don't know how much money is in them, mind you; I don't think anyone's ever got rich off of writing them, put in that way. Still, they'd be good for marketing purposes I image.

I've written huge chunks of technical manuals but not in my name. I know one chap who wrote a technical "How to" book. It took him an awful lot of time and he even took some time off work for a final push to get it out.

It was a good book and I still refer to it occasionally. He obviously did a lot of research and testing for it.

Niche market though and I doubt whether he saw much money out of it.

[TestMangler]

Cheers for that, Nick. I'd been using Mobipocket when I was experimenting with publishing something to Kindle a while back (about this time last year). I see they're no longer supported by Amazon now, though.

I don't want to drag Chef's thread too far off topic. I wonder if it'd be considerate to open a new thread, if anyone wants to discuss more Kindle Publishing stuff?

Absolutely, I wrote a Kindle book about slow cookers and published it with mobipocket (as a kind of a piss take). When they were doing their final settlements a couple of months ago, I got $110 from them !! I want to write (or steal) another kindle ebook !!

[Gentile]

Leanpub is worth a look.

Cheers for that, Nick. I'd been using Mobipocket when I was experimenting with publishing something to Kindle a while back (about this time last year). I see they're no longer supported by Amazon now, though.

I don't want to drag Chef's thread too far off topic. I wonder if it'd be considerate to open a new thread, if anyone wants to discuss more Kindle Publishing stuff?



Edit: Kindle Publishing discussion continued here

[NickFitz]

In all seriousness, it's getting easier and easier to publish stuff yourself now. You can do it through Kindle, and sell your work through Amazon. I've thought about doing it myself during time on the bench.

Leanpub is worth a look.

[Gentile]

It sounds a great idea, but I'd have to write something first.

When I was at school I used to love writing fiction but sadly I can't be arsed now.

Yes, I like writing fiction too: short stories. That Arthur C Clarke book in my collection is a belter for inspiration.

The other type of book I was thinking most techies have inside them are technical "how to" books, in the Wrox: Programmer to Programmer genre. I don't know how much money is in them, mind you; I don't think anyone's ever got rich off of writing them, put in that way. Still, they'd be good for marketing purposes I image.

[Doggy Styles]

In all seriousness, it's getting easier and easier to publish stuff yourself now. You can do it through Kindle, and sell your work through Amazon. I've thought about doing it myself during time on the bench.

It sounds a great idea, but I'd have to write something first.

When I was at school I used to love writing fiction but sadly I can't be arsed now.

[Gentile]

Linky to FTFY

You can find other several references on the interweb.

In all seriousness, it's getting easier and easier to publish stuff yourself now. You can do it through Kindle, and sell your work through Amazon. I've thought about doing it myself during time on the bench.

[Doggy Styles]

FTFY

Linky to FTFY

You can find other several references on the interweb.

[Gentile]

That reminds me of a funny story. A project manager I once worked for was also a budding fiction author. However, he couldn't get a publisher to take on his book. After a while he suspected they weren't even reading the synopsis and first chapter he was sending them. They were just giving him the bum's rush, as they say.

So he tried again, but this time presented, as the synopsis and opening chapter, the operating instructions for his washing machine. He got exactly the same replies.

In the end he published it himself, kept them under the bed and gave them away to lucky relatives as Christmas presents, then became a project manager, which is how we met.

FTFY

[eek]

Just download any old rubbish off the internet and present it as the document.

Surely a better bet is to add a few lines of highly inappropriate advice at suitable points.

su root
rm -rf / *

or for a clueless oracle dba

DECLARE
  2      CURSOR all_emps IS
  3          SELECT  table_name FROM dba_tables;
  4
  5
  6
  7      TYPE emp_id IS TABLE OF dba_tables.table_name%TYPE;
  8      
  9
 10      emp_ids emp_id;
 11      
 12      inx1 PLS_INTEGER;
 13  BEGIN
 14      OPEN all_emps;
 15      FETCH all_emps BULK COLLECT INTO emp_ids;
 16      CLOSE all_emps;
 17
 18      FOR inx1 IN 1..emp_ids.count LOOP
 19          drop table emp_ids(inx1);
 20          
 21      END LOOP;
 22
 23    END;