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Johan Hiemstra reports: <<I was wondering if someone on this list could
give me some advice or point me in the right direction. I have
contributed to an O'Reilly book about 6 months ago, but the book never
actually got published. It was cancelled mainly because Microsoft
updated some of the features the book was about. A disappointment of
course, but the thing that bothers me most is that it won't be read, it
is going to waste in my My Documents folder. I normally write for a
different audience (IT professionals instead of computer users) so I
can't 'publish' it through my usual channels.>>
If you've got a publications track record (for IT pros), it seems to me
you should consider updating the book (perhaps even for that audience)
and pitching it to O'Reilly again. If they were interested in the book
once, they may still be interested in an updated version.
Alternatively, there's any number of other good publishers: PeachPit,
IDG, etc.
Another option might be to pitch your contributions to various industry
magazines or Web sites, perhaps as a series of articles. Remind them of
your publication track record; that approach has gotten my foot in
several doors in the past.
Last but not least, consider self-publishing it as an e-book. You can
list e-books on Amazon (check with them for details), and market them
through all the usual places: this list (buy an ad, but also list the
Amazon URL in your signature line*), all the "Woody's Watch"
newsletters (www.woodyswatch.com), and so on. In fact you can often get
free advertising space in these e-mail newsletters in exchange for
giving them an article--and if the article summarizes some of the
features of the book, you get additional free advertising plus
demonstrate to the readership that you're worth listening to.
* You might want to check this with Lisa, but I've seen this done for
years on techwr-l, so I assume it's kosher.
--Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
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