This past weekend, I finished the first draft of my as-yet-untitled “publishing for programmers” book! 🎉
Finishing a first draft is always a wonderful feeling. This one came in at a bit over 25,000 words, and I don’t expect it to increase in word count much during the edit. Perhaps it’ll grow a couple thousand words. One problem with non-fiction is avoiding pulling in the whole world when you tug on a thread of a subject, so I’m working hard to constrain the problem space covered by the book.
Speaking of which, here’s the current table of contents:
Introduction
Marketing, Part 1
Writing
Co-Writing
Traditional vs. Indie
Editing
Formats and Distribution
Ebooks
Print
Audiobooks
Interior Formatting
Title and Cover
Registrations
Translations
Marketing, Part 2
I put the topics roughly in the order in which you’d need them as you’re going through a book project.
You’re all busy, and I want this book to be a big time saver for you. Each chapter begins with a “tl;dr” that should give you a sense of whether you can just go with a simple solution presented there and skip reading the chapter. At the end of each chapter is a summary to make sure the most important bits have come through.
About those marketing chapters: This is not a marketing book. That’s a huge and distinct topic, but I couldn’t resist passing along a few tips that I imported from the indie publishing world.
I have a good deal of work ahead to take this book from first draft to ready. Beyond the expected editing, I need to do indexing, finalize formatting, and create a handy, customizable checklist to help you work through the many little things that need to be done.
If there’s something that seems to be missing from this list of topics, let me know!
Kevin