I'm here at the Los Angeles airport on my way to Canada.
Well Cheryl, I couldn't find any email address to send you a response, so Idecided to post here instead and post a traceback on your blog.
After learning about the Blooker Prize, I had asked our IBM Developerworks team if anyone else within IBM had published a blook, but nobody had heard of anything, so I had to look elsewhere.I got a lot of guidance from Lulu's [Book Publishing FAQs], and Don Campbell's[Five Steps to Publishing Your Paperback Book at Lulu],and how-to articles over at [bookcatcher.com].
- Decision 1: Defining the Container
Before you can cut-and-paste anything, you need a container file to put it in. Here were my key decisions:
- Page Size: Novel 6"x9" (15cm x 23cm) to support both perfect-bound paperback and dust-jacket hardcopy editions
- Colors: Full-color covers with black-and-white interior
- Fonts: 10pt Book Antiqua for the text, Courier for the monospaced computer examples,8pt for the "copyright" fine print
- Format: *.doc Microsoft Word file, using [Lulu's ready-to-use templates]
- Software: Office 2003 version of Microsoft Word on Windows XP system
- Front matter: Title, Copyright, Dedication, Table of Contents, Foreword, Introduction
- Back matter: Blog Roll, Blogging Guidelines, Glossary, Reference table, What people have written about me and my blog
According to Lulu, you could use OpenOffice instead with RTF files. I didn't try that. I did tryusing CutePDF to upload ready-made PDFs, that didn't work. I also tried saving text in PDF formaton my Mac Mini running OS X 10.4 Tiger, but Lulu didn't like that either.IBM now offers a free download of [LotusSymphony] that might be an alternative for my next book.
For my blook, the "Blog Roll" serves instead of a more formal [Bibliography]. I could have also includedonline magazines and other web resources.
- Decision 2: Chapter Configuration
I reviewed other blooks to see how they were organized. I thought I might organize the blog posts by topic or category, but all the blooks I looked atwere strictly chronological, oldest post first. This of course is exactly opposite as theyappear on the web browser. I decided to keep things simple, with just 12 chapters, one for each calendar month.
Each chapter was separated by a section break with unique footers, starting on odd page number. The footers have the page numbers on the outside edges, so that even pages had numbers on the left, and odd pages on the right. I also added the name of the chapter and the book, like so:
--------------------------------| |----------------------------
40 ................December 2006| |Inside System Storage.... 41
This was a lot of work, but makes the book look more "professional".
- Decision 3: Cut-and-Paste
People have asked me why it took three months to put my blook together, and I explainedthat the cut-and-paste process was manually intensive. My posts are either HTML entereddirectly into Roller webLogger, or typed in HTML on Windows Notepad and cut-and-pastedover to Roller later. I have access to the HTML source of each post, as wellas how it appears on the webpage, and tried cut-and-paste both ways. Copying theHTML source meant having to edit out all the HTML tags. I hadn't even looked into the idea of "backing up" through Roller all the entries, but they would probably have been HTMLsource as well.
In turned out that copying the webpage directly from the browser was better, which retains more of the formatting,and automatically eliminates all of the pesky HTML tags. I wanted the printed versions to resemblethe web page version.
Microsoft Word indicates all hyperlinks as bright blue underlined text which I didn't like, so I removedall hyperlinks, to avoid having to pay extra for "colored pages". This can be done manually, one by one, or pasting with the "text only" option butthis removes out all the other formatting as well. (Specifying black-and-white interior on Lulu might have converted all of these automaticallyto greyscale, so I might have been safe to leave them in,which I probably could have done if I wanted an online e-book version with links active, ... oh well)
To indicate where the hyperlinks would have been, I wrapped all the linked text in[square brackets]. I have now gotten in the habit of doing this for future blog posts, soif I ever make another book, it will cut down the work and effort on the cut-and-paste.
Some of the items I linked to posed a problem. I had to convert YouTube videos to flat imagesof the first frame to include them into the book. Older links were broken, and I had tofind the original graphics. I also sent a note to Scott Adams related about the use of one of his Dilbert cartoons.
I decided to also cut-and-paste my technorati tags and comments. For comments I mademyself, I labeled them "Addition" or "Response". A few people did not realize thatI was "az990tony" making the comments as the blog author, so I changed all to say "az990tony (Tony Pearson)" to make this more clear, and now do this on all future blogposts to minimize the work for my next book.
Because I used a lot of technical terms and acronyms, Microsoft Word actually gave mean error message that there were so many gramattical and spelling errors that it wasunable to track them all, and would no longer put wavy green or red lines underneath.
I did all the cut-and-paste work myself, but since the website is publicly accessible,I could have gotten someone else to do this for me.Had I read Timothy Ferriss' book The Four Hour Work Week sooner,I might have taken his advice on [Outsourcing the project to someone in India]. I might consider doing this for my next book.
- Decision 4: Numbering the Posts
I decided I wanted to standardize the title of each post. The date was not uniqueenough, as there were days that I made multiple posts. So, I decided to assign eacha unique number, from 001 to 165, like so:
2006 Dec 12 - The Dilemma over future storage formats (033)
Posts that referred back to one of my earlier posts within the book had (#nnn) added so that readers couldgo jump back to them if they were interested. This eliminated trying to keep track of pagenumbers.
- Decision 5: Adding behind-the-scenes commentary
- Decision 6: Adding a Glossary
I sent early copies of the books to five of my coworkers knowledgeable about storage, andfive local friends who know nothing about storage.
Some of my early reviewers suggested having an index, so that people can find a specific poston a particular topic. Others suggested I spell out all the acronyms that appear everywhereand put that into the Reference section, rather than on each and every occurrence inthe book itself. Both were good ideas, and my IBM colleague Mike Stanek suggested calling ita GOAT (Glossary of Acronyms and Terms). Acronyms are spelled out, and terms or phrasesthat need additional explanation have a glossary definition. For eachitem, I put the post or posts that uses that term. Some terms are covered in dozens ofposts, so I tried to pick five or fewer posts representing the most pertinent.
The glossary was far more time-consuming than I first imagined, with over 50 pages containingover 900 entries. I struggled deciding which terms and acronyms needed explanation, and which were obvious enough. On the good side, itforced me to read and re-read the entire book cover to cover, and I caught a lot of othermistakes, misspellings, and formatting errors that way. Also, I have a large internationalreadership on my blog, so the glossary will help those whose English is not their native language,and will help those readers who are not necessarily experts in the storage industry.
- Decision 7: Designing the Covers
Up to this point, I had been printing early drafts with simple solid color covers. Lulu hasthree choices for covers:
- Just type in the text, upload an "author's photo" and chose a background color or pattern
- Upload PNG files, one for the front cover, one for the back cover, and chose the textand color of the spine.
- Upload a single one-piece PDF file that wraps around the entire book.
I had no software to generate the PDF for the third option, so I decided to try the secondoption. My first attempt was to format the front title page in WORD, capture the screen,convert to PNG and upload it as the front cover. I did same for the back cover, with a smallpicture of me and some paragraphs about the book.
I chose a simple straightforward title on purpose. Thousands of IBM and other IT marketing and technicalpeople will be ordering this book, and submitting their expenses for reimbursement as work-related, and didn't want to cause problems with a cute title like "An Engineer in Marketing La-La Land".
The next step was to use [the GIMP] GNU image manipulationprogram, similar to PhotoShop, to add a cream colored background, a slanted green spine, and some graphics that we had developed professionally for some of our IBM presentations.I learned how to use the GIMP when making tee-shirts and coffee mugs for our [Second Life] events, so I was already familiar. For newblook authors, I suggest they learn how to use this for their covers, or find someone who can do thisfor them.
I did the paperback version first, and once done, it was easy to use the same PNG files forthe dust jacket of the hardcover edition, adding some extra words for the front and back flaps.
The adage "Don't judge a book by its cover" seems to apply to everything except booksthemselves. The book cover is the first impression online, and in a bookstore. I have seenpeople pick books up off the shelf at my local Barnes & Noble, read the front and back covers, peruse the front and backflaps, and make a purchase decision without ever flipping a single page of the contents inside.From an article on Book Catcher [SELF-PUBLISHING BOOK PRODUCTION & MARKETING MISTAKES TO AVOID]:
According to selfpublishingresources website, three-fourths of 300 booksellers surveyed (half from independent bookstores and half from chains) identified the look and design of the book cover as the most important component of the entire book. All agreed that the jacket is the prime real estate for promoting a book.
While many struggle to find the right title and cover art, I think it is interesting that Lululets you post the same book with slightly different titles and covers, each as separate projects, and let market forces decide which one people like best. This is a common practice among marketresearch firms.
- Decision 8: Finding someone to write the Foreword
With the book nearly done, I thought it would be a nice touch to have an IBM executive write a Foreword at the frontof the book. Several turned me down, so I am glad I found a prominent Worldwide IBM executiveto do it. I should have started this process sooner, as she wanted to read my book in its entirety beforeputting pen to paper. I had not planned for this. I was hoping to be done by end of October,but waiting for her to finish writing the Foreword added some extra weeks. Next time,I will start this process sooner.
- Decision 9: Printing Early Drafts
You need to have Lulu print at least one copy to review before making it available to the public,and it doesn't hurt to order a few intermediary draft copies to make sure everything looks right.However, from the time I order it on Lulu, to the time it is in my hands, is over two weeks withstandard shipping, so I needed a way to print drafts to look at in between.
To avoid wear-and-tear on my color ink-jet printer, I went and bought a large black-and-white[Brother HL-5250DN] laser printer. Rather than buying specialty 6x9 paper, I used standard 8.5x11 paperusing the following 2-up duplex method:
- Upload the DOC file to Lulu, and get it converted to PDF
- Download the resulting PDF from Lulu back to your computer
- View the PDF in Adobe Reader, and print it using 2-up "Booklet" mode.
For example, if you print 60 pages in booklet mode, it prints two mini-pages on thefront side, and two more mini-pages on the back side of each sheet of paper, resulting in 15 standard 8.5" x 11" pages that can be folded, stapled, and read like a mini-booklet. My entire blook could be printed on seven of these mini-booklets, saving paper, and giving me a close approximation to what the final book would look like. Eachmini-page is 5.5"x8.5", so just slightly smaller than the final 6"x9" form factor.I fount that 60 pages/15 sheets was about the maximum before it becomes hard to fold in half.
So, if I had to do it all over again, I might have chosen 11pt Garamond (the default), or changedthe default to 11pt Book Antiqua up front, so as not to have spend so much time converting thefonts. I might have left out the glossary. I might have left in all the hyperlinks and graphicsin full color for a separate e-book edition. And I definitely would have looked for an author formy Foreword much earlier in the process.
I didn't plan to write a blook when I started blogging. I have started putting [square brackets]around all my links. I have started putting "az990tony (Tony Pearson)" on all my comments. I hadassumed that people were jumping to all the links I provided in context, but I learned that the blogpost has to stand on its own, so now I make sure that I either paraphrase the important parts, oractually quote the text that I feel is important, so that the blog post makes sense on its own.This is perhaps good advice in general, but even more important if you plan to write a blook later.
Lastly, I decided up front to write blog posts that were 500-700 words long, about the average lengthof magazine or newspaper articles. In my blook, the average is 639 words per post, so I hit thatgoal. I have seen some blogs where each post is just a few sentences. Maybe they are posting fromtheir cell phone, or don't have time to think out a full thought, but who wants to read a year'sworth of [twitter] entries.
Well Cheryl, I hope that helps. If you need anymore, click on the "email" box on the right panel.