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I had been wondering if writing a book on GitHub in markdown was a legitimate idea or just based on my inexperience with other writing tools. I still don't know

I had been wondering if writing a book on GitHub in markdown was a legitimate idea or just based on my inexperience with other writing tools. I still don't know, but the author's work has convinced me that's how I want to do my next writing project.

munificent 13y ago
Yes, I really loved the workflow I ended up with. Putting it on GitHub has been hugely helpful. I merged four pull requests and closed twenty bugs this morning. How awesome is that?
- protonfish 13y ago
  It really is wonderful to work on documents with git and markdown is the perfect pairing of text format. There seems to be a huge opportunity waiting for someone to make a GitHub marketed to non-techie writers.
  - gknoy 13y ago
    I believe Loren already made it: https://www.penflip.com/ https://www.penflip.com/ (Caveat: I've signed up but never used it.)
  - bowerbird 13y ago
    if you already know git (or github), it'll work for books. but i doubt it's the best change-tracking system for them. too much irrelevant crap, and it doesn't cut to the heart of those things that actually need to be done for a book. plus, most writers will never slog through learning github. to make a system that is writer-friendly _and_ does what a book-writing change-tracking system ideally _should_ do, you'd have to hack github so much that -- in the end -- it would have been order-of-magnitude simpler (and better) to program a purpose-built system instead, from scratch. and yes, i told loren this from day one. he didn't believe me then. but if you ask him now, i'll bet he won't be quite so sure. and by the time he's done, i have no doubt he will agree. yes, writers need a version-control system. but no, it is most definitely _not_ github. -bowerbird
    - imarg 13y ago
      What you say is interesting, but how much time would he have lost before he could launch if he had to write a system from scratch? On the other hand when using something ready like git allowed him to launch quicker. If he gets traction he can always write a new system later, if not then he has saved up on a lot of time.
      - bowerbird 13y ago
        i wasn't saying this person should've built a new system. indeed, what i said is, if you already know git/hub, use it, as you can sidestep its problem areas, to get what you need. but in the long run, github won't work for most writers. so a purpose-built system needs to be built for them/us... -bowerbird
      - bowerbird 13y ago
        perhaps you meant penflip's loren, not the original poster? if so, then yes, what i'm saying exactly is that _loren_ could have saved himself time and trouble, in the long run, by coding a purpose-built system, instead of hacking github. what it would've cost him, however, is the huge "jumpstart" he received by proclaiming his goal as "github for writers". the kneejerk response to that, from the tech circles, was something that created huge word-of-mouth and mind-share, not to mention a great starting user-base, of technoids. but that was months ago, and now there's some sense of "whatever happened to penflip?" and when he goes out to sell the system to writers, the "github" label will not be a benefit at all. (if anything, it will be a liability; but i think in general writers are fully unaware of it.) all of this is my opinion. you, like loren, may disagree. -bowerbird
  - mkal_tsr 13y ago
    I write all of my internal documentation in Markdown and then use a pandoc script to convert it to offline PDFs, rendered HTML, and break out internal vs. public facing documentation.
- steveklabnik 13y ago
  I have also found very similar things with my writing; one of my books is on GitHub, one is in a private repo, and a third is with a publisher. Merging pull requests is _waaaay_ easier than reading through emails or forum postings and fixing it yourself.
luckyisgood 13y ago
The combination of Github + markdown for writing a (technical) book is exactly what https://leanpub.com/ https://leanpub.com/ is all about, check it out. (Or, instead of writing markdown on Github, you can upload your markdown files to Dropbox which is then synced with Leanpub). Leanpub also enables you to publish a book and ask for money while you're writing it. I've chosen Leanpub as the publishing platform for my first book. They only ask for 10% + 50c royalties and there iz zero lock-in with them.
- bowerbird 13y ago
  um... leanpub.com has been around for several years now. and they only introduced the github integration this month. so you can't really say that is "_exactly_ what it's about." or even that it has yet had much of a shakeout in testing. -bowerbird

munificent 13y ago

Yes, I really loved the workflow I ended up with. Putting it on GitHub has been hugely helpful. I merged four pull requests and closed twenty bugs this morning. How awesome is that?

protonfish 13y ago
It really is wonderful to work on documents with git and markdown is the perfect pairing of text format. There seems to be a huge opportunity waiting for someone to make a GitHub marketed to non-techie writers.
- gknoy 13y ago
  I believe Loren already made it: https://www.penflip.com/ https://www.penflip.com/ (Caveat: I've signed up but never used it.)
- bowerbird 13y ago
  if you already know git (or github), it'll work for books. but i doubt it's the best change-tracking system for them. too much irrelevant crap, and it doesn't cut to the heart of those things that actually need to be done for a book. plus, most writers will never slog through learning github. to make a system that is writer-friendly _and_ does what a book-writing change-tracking system ideally _should_ do, you'd have to hack github so much that -- in the end -- it would have been order-of-magnitude simpler (and better) to program a purpose-built system instead, from scratch. and yes, i told loren this from day one. he didn't believe me then. but if you ask him now, i'll bet he won't be quite so sure. and by the time he's done, i have no doubt he will agree. yes, writers need a version-control system. but no, it is most definitely _not_ github. -bowerbird
  - imarg 13y ago
    What you say is interesting, but how much time would he have lost before he could launch if he had to write a system from scratch? On the other hand when using something ready like git allowed him to launch quicker. If he gets traction he can always write a new system later, if not then he has saved up on a lot of time.
    - bowerbird 13y ago
      i wasn't saying this person should've built a new system. indeed, what i said is, if you already know git/hub, use it, as you can sidestep its problem areas, to get what you need. but in the long run, github won't work for most writers. so a purpose-built system needs to be built for them/us... -bowerbird
    - bowerbird 13y ago
      perhaps you meant penflip's loren, not the original poster? if so, then yes, what i'm saying exactly is that _loren_ could have saved himself time and trouble, in the long run, by coding a purpose-built system, instead of hacking github. what it would've cost him, however, is the huge "jumpstart" he received by proclaiming his goal as "github for writers". the kneejerk response to that, from the tech circles, was something that created huge word-of-mouth and mind-share, not to mention a great starting user-base, of technoids. but that was months ago, and now there's some sense of "whatever happened to penflip?" and when he goes out to sell the system to writers, the "github" label will not be a benefit at all. (if anything, it will be a liability; but i think in general writers are fully unaware of it.) all of this is my opinion. you, like loren, may disagree. -bowerbird
- mkal_tsr 13y ago
  I write all of my internal documentation in Markdown and then use a pandoc script to convert it to offline PDFs, rendered HTML, and break out internal vs. public facing documentation.
steveklabnik 13y ago
I have also found very similar things with my writing; one of my books is on GitHub, one is in a private repo, and a third is with a publisher. Merging pull requests is _waaaay_ easier than reading through emails or forum postings and fixing it yourself.

luckyisgood 13y ago

The combination of Github + markdown for writing a (technical) book is exactly what https://leanpub.com/ https://leanpub.com/ is all about, check it out. (Or, instead of writing markdown on Github, you can upload your markdown files to Dropbox which is then synced with Leanpub). Leanpub also enables you to publish a book and ask for money while you're writing it. I've chosen Leanpub as the publishing platform for my first book. They only ask for 10% + 50c royalties and there iz zero lock-in with them.

bowerbird 13y ago
um... leanpub.com has been around for several years now. and they only introduced the github integration this month. so you can't really say that is "_exactly_ what it's about." or even that it has yet had much of a shakeout in testing. -bowerbird