RE: Why not do it ourselves? (Was: using 3rd-party books)

[kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com]

As stated in previous responses, most "normal" documentation teams simply
don't have the time and/or resources to produce that level and quantity of
documentation.

As far as the "for Dummies" style of light-hearted writing, I think it
would be VERY difficult to get a TEAM to write in that style with any
level of consistency. That's why those books are usually written by only
one or two authors.

Writing "funny" is hard. Most writers can't do it at all, and hardly any
can do it well all the time. It's not a skillset most tech writers have
tried to develop (nor should they, for most gigs).

Thus, this sort of task falls to third-party publishers. And for it to be
worthwhile to them, the product they're documenting needs to be in
widespread use. I think a lot of us on this list work for companies
serving niche markets, so I doubt we can hope to publish any
bestsellers...




 - Keith Cronin

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