In a point of obvious self-interest, I wanted to let everyone know that Peachpit Press and Barnes and Noble are doing a promotion this month on several Visual QuickStart Guides, including my PHP for the Web (3rd Edition). Applicable titles are 30% off; PHP for the Web is $24.49 (US), $22.04 (US) for BN members. I believe these prices also apply in the store. If you’ve been thinking about picking up this book, or another Visual QuickStart Guide, like Elizabeth Castro’s excellent HTML, XHTML, and CSS, or the JavaScript and Ajax for the Web by Tom Negrino and Dori Smith, March is the right time!
Archives For writing
Later this year I’m going to write an e-commerce with PHP and MySQL book for Peachpit Press. This is a topic that’s often been requested by my readers and one I’m happy to finally address. I have written e-commerce chapters in my PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide
UPDATE: I’ve just posted the rough table of contents. My apologies for the delay on this and my sincerest thanks to those interested in the book!
Somewhat randomly I’ve recently come across two very useful articles, each of which contains ten Web development tips. The first is at hackification, and is called Ten Web Development Tips I Wish I’d Known Two Years Ago. This seems to be a generally good blog, with lots of stuff worth reading. In this particular article, I also heartedly agree with the author’s suggestions that you should…
- Use a browser development plug-in, like Firebug and YSlow
- Learn JavaScript
This author also mentions using a reset stylesheet, something I wasn’t familiar with but is also mentioned in…
…the 10 Dirty Little Web Development Tricks article at Yongfook. That author also recommends using a versioning system like SVN (to control the different versions of files as you work with them), which I feel makes more sense if you’re working on something with a team. Along with recommendations to learn the jQuery JavaScript framework and the Zend PHP framework, the author also suggests you take a break, perhaps the best piece of debugging advice that I’ve ever also given (I always include that in my books). There’s also some best-practices there related to using frameworks and MVC approaches to sites.
Last month I started discussions with the Studio B agency, which represents technical writers. Studio B is a bit different than the agency I used to be represented by (I’m not currently represented by an agent) in that they can represent book writers in full, which is the kind of representation I had before, or work with writers on an individual project basis, primarily for online articles. I’ve been speaking with Studio B under these latter pretenses, initially with the intent of writing articles on Adobe Flex and AIR.
Anyway, the point in this post isn’t to dicusss my history with agents and agencies, rather to point you towards Studio B’s Web site. I am frequently asked about what steps one would take to get published. The answer isn’t a secret, you just need to come up with a good idea and follow the publishers’ guidelines for submission. Studio B has quite a bit of good information on their site for getting published, including this article on writing winning book proposals. If you click on the “Studio B for Authors” link, you’ll find several other articles that are well worth reading. Finally, I will say that you don’t necessarily need an agent in order to get published (I signed with an agent after already publishing three books) but some argue that it is worth your while to have one. Regardless of that decision, if you’re interest in writing, check out those articles on Studio B’s Web site for some great, no-nonsense information.
I’m very much a book person, I have been ever since college. You might think this would be the case as I write books for a living, but for many people there can be a big discrepancy between what you do and what you like to do. So, not only do I write books, but I love reading books; reading anything, really.
All that being said, although I do read computer books by other authors, even on the same subjects as I’ve written about, I just don’t think it appropriate for me to discuss or review these other works. I may make an occasional comment here or there, but generally I avoid doing so. There are two reasons why: first, I have an inherent conflict of interest, particularly when it comes to books on similar subjects as mine (i.e., competing books). Second, while everyone has different expectations of a book, as a person that makes much of his living doing technical writing, my expectations are likely more particular than most.
I mention all this because I often am asked as to what other books a person should consider. I can provide recommendations–clearly biased–regarding my own books but not for any others. Maybe I can offer up the occasional “this one sells well” or “I’ve heard good things about” but I do want to avoid full-on reviews and any official thumbs up/down. However, if you are curious about other books, you can post a message in the forums so that others may chip in with their own opinions.
