The New Books hit the Street
November 6th is going to be a big day for me. That’s when my latest Hitchhiker’s Guide to Visual Studio and SQL Server (7th Edition) and my first EBook Hitchhiker’s Guide to SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition hit the streets. I expect to get my first copy here in Redmond tomorrow (Friday November 3rd). Addison Wesley tells me that the bookstore at the Connections conference in Vegas will have the first copies. They also plan to have copies at TechEd Barcelona that same week and at PASS here in Seattle the following week.
The 7th edition has taken over two years to write—unlike the first edition which I was able to knock out in about 12 weeks. In those days I did everything from writing, drawing the illustrations, editing, proofreading and publishing, shipping and marketing. Today, the process involves a bazillion people and interminable delays. Consider that I submitted the manuscript to the publisher in April of 2006—it took until November to get it into printed form and on its way to its first conference. This is precisely why I’ve written my first EBook. When I first conceived of the idea to publication took about 8 weeks. It would have been less time if we didn’t have to break new ground setting up the site to sell it. Peter Blackburn is handling that part of the job for me. He’s got the CPU horsepower and DSL bandwidth to take on this part of the operation. Perhaps he can publish your EBook?
Be sure to visit www.hitchhikerguides.net for more information on both books.