Thanks and Question in Regards to Authoring?
Printed From: Crystal Reports Book
Category: General Information
Forum Name: Talk with the Author
Forum Discription: Ask Brian questions about his books and give him your comments. Like the book? Hate the book? Have suggestions? Let me know!
URL: http://www.crystalreportsbook.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2004
Printed Date: 20 Apr 2025 at 1:08am
Topic: Thanks and Question in Regards to Authoring?
Posted By: rhartness
Subject: Thanks and Question in Regards to Authoring?
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2008 at 1:39pm
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Brian,
Thanks for being willing to help me out on the issue that I had posted to this forum. It's quite nice to find an author of a technical book that is willing to also help individuals that need help that extends beyond a published manual of some form.
I've been wondering, how does some one actually become a published writer of technical books? It seems to me that it would be impossible to write a 500+ book in regards to just about any topic because after the book has been written, proofed, formated, printed and shipped it would already be out of date!
How did you enter the field and how do authors turn out so much information, so quickly, while still finding the time to use the software and services they are writing about so that the information is accurate and well qualified?
Thanks again!
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Replies:
Posted By: BrianBischof
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2008 at 2:28pm
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It's easy: stop talking to friends and family and only eat when absolutely necessary. Seriously. Yes, books go out of date before they are finished. And even if it doesn't go out of date, there is probably less than six months of life left in it. It's quite frustrating. Plus, most authors don't make any money from book sales. The publisher takes it all. Most of them do it so that they can use it as a marketing tool for their consulting practice. It's amazing how writing a book can get you in the door to many companies and make the sale. The problem with today's market is that the internet has so much free information on it that few people want to actually pay for books anymore. I originally had most of my chapters posted for free in their entirety because I had the belief that people would appreciate all the free content and support the site buy buying the paperback version. But that didn't work out unfortunately. This website gets thousands of people visiting it everyday and reading the forum, but nobody bought a book. Everyone just wants free information. Nobody clicks on that little banner I have at the bottom of the page. It's a bit discouraging. I also tried Google ads, but that didn't work out either. So now I took out all that free online content (sorry!) and book sales have finally started improving. I was actually planning on creating online training videos for many CR topics and posting them for free as well. But hey - I can't justify giving up all my free time creating videos if it doesn't help book sales. I REALLY REALLY wish I could figure out some business model that lets me create tons of free CR content and still pay the bills. But I haven't been successful at it. Luckily, there are some great members on this forum who help answer many questions and this frees up my time now to focus on writing new content for my next book (CR.NET 2005/2008). If it wasn't for everyone helping out, I would have been on the verge of throwing in the towel. But as you probably already know, none of the other CR forums have any community whatsoever and it would be sad to lose this site. I really enjoy seeing how people around the world are getting help for their problems and seeing how people work together on some of the problems. And if anyone wants to support the forum, please click on the banner below and buy a book! If you don't want to buy a book, please link to the forum so that others know about it.  If you want to find out what I went through to self-publish my first book, click here: http://www.crystalreportsbook.com/selfpublishing.asp - self-publishing secrets ------------- Please support the forum! Tell others by linking to it on your blog or website:<a href="http://www.crystalreportsbook.com/forum/">Crystal Reports Forum</a> |