The Wargo Blog

That’s how long it takes to ‘write’ a 500 page computer book. I started the process on December 1st, 2008 and it’s pretty much consumed my after-hours life since then. I have:

• Written 17 chapters and 3 appendices
• Captured screen shots or drawn figures for about 200 images for the book
• Been through the editing process with the ‘Development Editor’
• Been through the review process with about 6 reviewers plus a review committee for a major player who shall remain nameless
• Sliced, diced and crammed as much information as I can in the book.

It turns out that it’s probably going to be too long. My publishing contract says 400 pages, I think I wrote about 600 pages and the editor has whacked it down to what I hope is about 500 pages (big, but not too big).

Now all I have to do is relax for a while. I’m still waiting for a couple of small reviews then the publisher will release the book to the production department and I get to start the spelling, grammar and punctuation portion of this process. I’m on schedule, so none of this should delay the book’s publish date (which is October 16th if you care).

Now I can go back to being a normal human for a few weeks as the production process starts. I wonder if my wife and kids remember me…

Safari Books Online published the first half of the book in rough-cuts format today. You can start reading the book here.

Yep, it’s finished! Wow, a whole bunch of work that was. Now all I have to do is finish the review/edit phase and (woohoo!) it’s ready to publish.

So, here’s where it stands:

• Chapters 1 through 9 have been through the edit and review process
• Chapters 10 and 11 are in the review process
• I still need to give 12 through 18 a read and submit them to the reviewers and editors

Making progress!

Well, I’m all alone this weekend and I’m (supposed to be) working on the book. I started chapter 14 Thursday night and my goal is to finish it today. I’ve decided that if I do this again, I’m going to put each chapter into its own folder – much easier when managing image files (screen shots).

Spent the morning getting caught up in my office. The bills are paid, deposits made and dry cleaning picked-up. No more delays!

I just discovered that BlackBerry Development Fundamentals was added to the Amazon catalog today. Yipee!! Here’s where you can get it:
Amazon.com

OK, I finally finished getting through the final reviewer’s comments. It was arduous – in one chapter, there were more comments than could fit on the page. As much as I hated putting aside the writing to spend an entire week processing a reviewer’s comments, their comments in general were helpful for the book. In many cases, they were looking too much at the book from their perspective (how they’d write it) but in others the comments were spot on and helped some of the rough spots in the book.

I really wish I had time to go back and do a complete edit/rewrite on the chapters, but I’m so far behind on writing that I’m not sure how much more ‘reading’ I’m going to be able to do.

My good friend David Via wrote an amazing forward for the book – Anna got all misty when she read it. It’s nice to have good friends to support you!

The publisher has decided on a title for the book!  The book is going to be called BlackBerry Development Fundamentals (the working title was Fundamentals of BlackBerry Development, so this is close to what I was thinking would be a good title).  The book should be up on amazon.com soon, look for the book by title or use the ISBN’s for the book: ISBN-10: 0321647424 or ISBN-13: 9780321647429.

I have 5 chapters in the editing process and hope to have the 6th in at the end of the weekend.  I’m halfway through writing chapter 10, so I’m more than halfway done (10.5/16). I’m having fun, but I’ll be happy when I can stop working into the we hours of the night.