I’ve been writing professionally about Web development and computer programming for 15 years now. I’ve written hundreds of articles, five published books, two online courses, plenty of chapters in other people’s books, and two unpublished books. I’m no where near as prolific as some author friends of mine, but I’m constantly trying and improving.
The first question people ask me when they learn that I’ve written books is “how did you get it published?”. The simple (and true) answer is “I have a fantastic and wonderful agent.” My agent keeps an eye out for projects I may be a good fit for, passes my name and bio on to the publisher and then connects me with the aquisitions editor and we submit a proposal and negotiate a contract.
If you don’t have an agent yet, your best bet for getting published is to hook up with someone who does have an agent and ask if you can be a co-author on one of their books. If you do good work and prove yourself to be reliable (more on that later!), doors will open for you.
I’m only talking about the traditional publishing industry here, because that’s where my experience has been. It’s entirely possible to self-publish, but I’m of the mind that I ought to get paid something for my work, and it’s much more difficult to do that without a publisher.
In part 2 of this article, I’ll tell you how and why I write books. If you have specific questions, however, let me know!
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