The Story behind the Book

• Introduction
• The Idea
• The Proposal
• The Contract
• The Writing Process
• Conclusion

I owe the idea for writing this 'story behind the book' to Philip Greenspun, author of "A Guide to Web Publishing". I greatly enjoyed his book (for further details, see recommended reading) but was also very interested in his 'book behind the book': a detailed account of everything that went into the creation of his book. This existed only on the web site that accompanied the book itself. It was a hugely useful insight into what goes on behind the scenes and one that I, as an aspiring author at the time, was particularly fascinated by.

Although this brief, and informal, account of my own experiences hardly counts as a book in itself, I hope that by sharing the process I went through, other potential authors out there might be similarly encouraged to set pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).

The Idea »