[Chicago-talk] Advice on writing a book?

Jonathan Rockway jon at jrock.us
Sat Aug 12 22:22:53 PDT 2006


I know there are a few authors on the list, and I'm interested in
hearing their advice / experiences.

Basically, I've wanted to write a book for some time, but wasn't really
sure of the topic.  Now, I am sure: I'd like to write a book about the
Catalyst framework.  Catalyst is just as good as Rails (well, better,
actually), but there isn't any marketing for it.  I think that a
well-written O'Reilly book would really help the PHBs realize that
Catalyst is an excellent platform for web apps.

I mentioned this on the Catalyst developer list, and the consensus was
that "well Catalyst has some POD docs, so that would be a waste". 

I would feel bad going behind their backs and writing a book that I
would personally profit from (having not written a single line of the
Catalyst core).  But I do feel qualified to write the book - I've
written two major apps on Catalyst, and am willing to devote the time to
clearly explain the concepts to newbies (and write the necessary example
code, etc).

Any thoughts here?  Is it OK to write a book on something you didn't
write?  Would it upset anyone?

Can I just put together an outline, and e-mail it to O'Reilly?  Is there
some procedure?  How can I prove that I'm qualified?

Anyway, thanks in advance for any insight.

Regards,
Jonathan Rockway

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