Writing about Technology

Here I sit - knee-deep in the final edit cycle for my upcoming book, "Educator's Podcast Directory 2007". Every time I reach this spot (it's my 14th title), I always think back to how I got into this in the first place. Might be a good time to write about it?

I get asked all the time what it's like to write, how you became an author, and what it feels like to publish. For me, it was a combination of dumb luck and good friends. A major publisher, IDG Books, the "Dummies" people, was looking for growth and expansion opportunities. At that time, they had about 100 titles on the market - mostly about technology. A friend and colleague at the school district where I taught, the lovely and talented Michelle Robinette, introduced me to the acquisitions editor and we three became the "next book" triangle. Michelle wrote "Macs for Teachers" and I wrote "Internet for Teachers". It was a HUGE risk for IDG - as both of us were at the time, unpublished, except for a bunch of magazine articles. I'd also done some chapters for scholarly works in the area of Mathematics for NCTM.

Michelle was great. We laughed, cried and prayed that we'd both finish and both books got done on time. Both were a hit, too.

The two most shocking things as a new writer were:
1. the size and scope of the contract they asked us to sign (it was more than 40 pages)
2. the crazy deadline

Every writer friend I know told me to beware of contracts and always get a second opinion. I called my lawyer, not a publications attorney, and he couldn't really help me much. Michelle and I were SO excited, we just signed the thing anyway. (I'll bet lots of first-time authors do that.)

It turns out that IDG was VERY fair to writers. There was an advance, plus a healthy commission for each book sold. The only stumbling point - what they called "high discount sales" - which covers sales through book clubs and places like the (then fledgling) Amazon.com. Those commissions were roughly half what the commissions were on a book sold off the shelf at Barnes & Noble or Borders.

The feeling of signing the contract was absolute rapture and absolute fear - all at once. That's because our books were due less than 4 months from the time we signed the contract. For me, that meant writing 350+ pages, obtaining illustrations with permissions, AND producing a CD to accompany the book. Oh, and all while I was teaching middle school science as my "full time" job.

Oh. And while I was writing my doctoral dissertation.

Looking back, I was INSANE to take on all that at once, but somehow I got though it. It helped me hone my organizational and writing skills - especially hopping back and forth between "Dummies style" writing and the academic writing for my dissertation.

Somehow, I finished both works on time. I defended my dissertation two weeks after my last deadline for the book.

Luckily, the editors at IDG were terrific (thank you) and my major professor's guidance made sure my dissertation defense went off relatively pain-free.

From there, I stumbled onto the speaking circuit and began to present, and later keynote, major education and technology conferences.

A couple years later, Apple hired me into their Education division and I was able to learn more about technology, meet hundreds of very bright people (within Apple and our education customers) and get even more excited about publishing.

Flash forward to today, after 13 other titles, I'm still keynoting and learning.

That's the Cliff's Notes version. If you want to hear more or have questions, just give me a shout at bard@techthree.com