Ask the Author: Lee Vaughan
Answered Questions (5)
Lee Vaughan
For me this is finding interesting computing projects to build chapters around. I do this by reading science books for lay-people, watching science documentaries, like Nova, reading comic books(!), and teaching myself new programming libraries. I've also been lucky in that some of my technical editors have suggested ideas that I ended up using.
Basically, I try to stay alert to anything that might be adaptable. Recently, a neighbor cut down some big trees, and looking at the stumps gave me the idea of writing a Python program for automatically counting tree rings, which is now a chapter in an upcoming book.
Basically, I try to stay alert to anything that might be adaptable. Recently, a neighbor cut down some big trees, and looking at the stumps gave me the idea of writing a Python program for automatically counting tree rings, which is now a chapter in an upcoming book.
Lee Vaughan
No commute, keeping your own hours, and turning a good phrase now and then.
Lee Vaughan
Approach it financially at first. While it is much easier to sell a technical book than a work of fiction, don't expect to make a living wage unless you are very lucky. If you are in it for the money, make sure the market isn't already saturated, that you exploit a niche, or gap, in the existing literature, and that you have a way to market the book effectively. Obviously, it helps if you have some credibility in an area and are well-known in a community. You make a larger royalty if you self-publish on say, Amazon, but it is a bit of a gamble. Having a publisher, especially early in your career, brings you credibility, a professional art department, editing, and marketing, including getting the book in bookstores like Barnes & Noble.
A great cover and title will help a book sell itself. A good example of this is "Python Crash Course" by Eric Matthes. The cover and title leave no doubt about the subject of the book, and help distinguish it on a sales rack.
You will also need an editor, including a technical editor(s) for technical books. This is very important. You may have noticed how easy it is to identify a self-published book just by reading a single paragraph. As Mike Tyson once said, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." Likewise, most people think they can write until they put it down on paper. And if you suspect it's lousy, it is!
If you have a publisher, be involved with all aspects of the book. The publisher's employees are working multiple books at the same time, and often have only a few years experience (if that!). Assumption is the mother of all screw-up, so don't assume they are always on the ball. For example, when the book comes out on Amazon, check that the "Look Inside" feature is working, the book description is correct, and any editorial reviews are added. If you do things like this in a nice way, they will appreciate it, and will make an extra effort on your title.
A great cover and title will help a book sell itself. A good example of this is "Python Crash Course" by Eric Matthes. The cover and title leave no doubt about the subject of the book, and help distinguish it on a sales rack.
You will also need an editor, including a technical editor(s) for technical books. This is very important. You may have noticed how easy it is to identify a self-published book just by reading a single paragraph. As Mike Tyson once said, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." Likewise, most people think they can write until they put it down on paper. And if you suspect it's lousy, it is!
If you have a publisher, be involved with all aspects of the book. The publisher's employees are working multiple books at the same time, and often have only a few years experience (if that!). Assumption is the mother of all screw-up, so don't assume they are always on the ball. For example, when the book comes out on Amazon, check that the "Look Inside" feature is working, the book description is correct, and any editorial reviews are added. If you do things like this in a nice way, they will appreciate it, and will make an extra effort on your title.
Lee Vaughan
Coffee, Mountain Dew, and Starbuck's mocha fraps. Actually, I started writing these books (Impractical Python Projects and Real-world Python) when I was teaching myself Python. I would pick subjects that interested me--like how you could computationally derive "I am Lord Voldemort" from "Tom Marvolo Riddle" (the key is cryptography)--and after months of doing these, I realized they would make an interesting book. Other inspirations come from reading lots of science books, such as the Apollo free-return mission, the Bayes' Rule shipwrecked sailor search, and the Pluto blink comparator, all in Real-World Python. The Aliens movie was an inspiration for programming a robot sentry gun. Fox was bought by Disney while I was writing, and we couldn't get permission to use the Alien franchise, so I switched it to a Doom video game-type scenario, which worked well.
Lee Vaughan
Colleagues at work were frustrated with learning Python through isolated, disconnected snippets of code. They wanted to create front-to-back working projects. They also wanted to know more about the problem domain they were working. Another issue was that most advanced beginner books included a large section on the basics of Python, which was redundant. Real-World Python, like Impractical Python Projects before it, is designed to compliment self-learning using tutorial books, like Python Crash Course or Python for Absolute Beginners.
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