Writing A Programming Book

Juan Manuel Tirado is a programmer who decided to write a book on Go. I’m not a Go programmer so I can’t comment intelligently on the book other than to bring it to your attention. What I can comment on is his post Writing a Programming Book in 2021.

If you’re thinking about writing a book, Tirado’s post is mostly good advice. I don’t agree with everything he says but, of course, every writer is different and it would be surprising if we agreed on every aspect of the writing process. To me, the oddest thing about his post is that he thinks writing a programming book in 2021 could be considered weird and feels the need to justify his writing it. As far as I’m concerned, a good book needs no justification. Those who are interested will read it. Those who aren’t are free to ignore it.

Tirado chose to self publish with Amazon. That’s a reasonable solution but puts a heavy burden on the author. It’s hard to overstate how much work a traditional publisher does to get your book into print. There’s copy editing, cover design, marketing and a host of other services they perform. On the other hand, self publishing puts you in charge. You make all the decisions.

His My recommendations section will probably be the most useful. Tirado found that spending a lot of time of the Table of Contents and then following it when writing was important. I’m more inclined to write the chapters out of order and settle on the ToC when the book is complete. Do whatever feels right for you.

All in all, his advice is worth reading and considering. If you’re interested in writing a book, take a look.

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