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I authored and co-authored some books. I wrote a book on Akka for Packt that has made maybe 5k. Packt is out of India and they have some different standards ar

I authored and co-authored some books. I wrote a book on Akka for Packt that has made maybe 5k. Packt is out of India and they have some different standards around topics and contents, but the experience wasn't much different from O'Reilly overall. And there was a mini book for O'Reilly that netted a couple k, mostly because of later sponsorship. Writing a book is a really tough experience. I found it taxing. It's interesting going to meetups and having people come up to me and shake my hand though saying they read my book. I'm not super super happy with either book tbh. It's just such a crazy process to try to get something you're 100% happy with, and once it goes into print that's it forever more. I would say the impact on my career has been noticeable maybe? You become an expert on a topic by writing well on it because you're forced to fill in all the gaps as you go, and then people give you the credit because you have a book. It sort of happens together when writing a book - becoming an expert and receiving the trust because you're an expert. Even if you thought you knew the subject before, you might find you didn't as well as you do at the end of writing on the topic.

JustinGarrison 8y ago
I completely agree! I learned a lot through the experience of writing the book. I probably put more thought into the topic than most people during the same time which helped me refine my definitions and become more of an expert as I was figuring things out. The only difference I think is I'm very happy with how our book turned out. It was a ton of work but I'm grateful that other people have been able to learn from our experience.
jlgaddis 8y ago
> You become an expert on a topic by writing well on it because you're forced to fill in all the gaps as you go, and then people give you the credit because you have a book. For me, teaching had a similar effect (and, to a lesser extent, blogging). I worked in IT at a .edu for ~8 years and was approached to teach a few courses as an adjunct professor, which I did for ~3 years. I think I learnt much, much more while I was teaching than my students ever learned from me.
anothergoogler 8y ago
> Packt is out of India and they have some different standards around topics and content That they do. I pretty much won't buy a Packt book anymore, burned too many times. And it's shameful the way they astroturf Amazon reviews.
- pc86 8y ago
  This is a shame, I hadn't looked too deeply into the content but everything looks high quality.

JustinGarrison 8y ago

I completely agree! I learned a lot through the experience of writing the book. I probably put more thought into the topic than most people during the same time which helped me refine my definitions and become more of an expert as I was figuring things out. The only difference I think is I'm very happy with how our book turned out. It was a ton of work but I'm grateful that other people have been able to learn from our experience.

jlgaddis 8y ago

> You become an expert on a topic by writing well on it because you're forced to fill in all the gaps as you go, and then people give you the credit because you have a book. For me, teaching had a similar effect (and, to a lesser extent, blogging). I worked in IT at a .edu for ~8 years and was approached to teach a few courses as an adjunct professor, which I did for ~3 years. I think I learnt much, much more while I was teaching than my students ever learned from me.

anothergoogler 8y ago

> Packt is out of India and they have some different standards around topics and content That they do. I pretty much won't buy a Packt book anymore, burned too many times. And it's shameful the way they astroturf Amazon reviews.

pc86 8y ago
This is a shame, I hadn't looked too deeply into the content but everything looks high quality.