Since the release of my first book, a lot of
people have emailed me with questions about
how I wrote the book, how I got started,
etc. I've posted answers to some of the
questions here.
Why did you decide to write
a book?
Even before I started the book, I had been
working with Citrix technologies for several
years. I felt (and still feel today) that
server-based computing has a place in every
organization. (I'm not talking about 100%
adoption, but, that every organization has
some difficult problems that this technology
can solve). Whenever I went to client sites,
they always asked me if I could recommend
any good books. Unfortunately, I felt that
most of the existing books were nothing but
a rehash of the Citrix instruction manual,
and they were all about the old version of
Citrix (1.8). After thinking about things, I
decided that I would be able to offer my own
perspective on how I think a Citrix
MetaFrame XP design should be approached, so
I went for it. Plus, I felt I could use the
extra money. (Also see the question "Why did
you decide to self-publish this book?")
How long did it take you to
write this book?
I started writing the first book (Published
February 2002) in April 2001. At that point,
I had no idea how long it would take. (In
fact, I initially figured that I would send
it to the printer that July—a mere four
months after I started writing.)
I didn't end up sending the book to the
printer until mid-January 2002. (In other
words, the book took me nine months to
write.) I had a "day job" at a consulting
company for most of that time, so my writing
was on evenings and weekends.
Why did you publish the book yourself
instead of using "real" publisher?
To me, it seems like the commercial
publishing industry is a racket (kind of
like the music industry). For years, you had
to play by their rules if you wanted to get
your books to your readers. However,
technology has changed that (like it has to
so many other industries).
As you'll see in further down this page,
anyone with a $1000 computer and $1000 in
software can produce content that can be
printed by a book manufacturer and sold at
Amazon.com.
Of course, I personally consider
BrianMadden.com Publishing Group a "real"
publisher. In actuality, I'm just some dude
with some computer software and a desire to
put my thoughts on paper. That being said,
there were two primary reasons that I
deciding to self-publish my books: money and
creative control.
From the money standpoint, commercial
publishers usually offer computer book
authors about $1.00 royalty per copy sold.
Of course they take care of the production,
editing, cover, marketing, logistics, and
distribution. But still, to me, $1.00 seems
kind of weak on a $50 book. Since Citrix is
a fairly niche/geek topic, I figured that
word of mouth would be my biggest marketing
component. I also figured that if my book
was of high quality and received good
reviews, it would sell well regardless of
who published it.
From the creative control standpoint, there
are a lot of things that I hate about
"other" computer books. (See the complete
list here.)
So, that being said, I decided to
self-publish my books so that I could avoid
the 10 points listed above.
How did you set yourself up
as a publisher?
Becoming a publisher is like starting a
business—there's no "official" process or
anything that you need to go through. All
you have to do is write a book and find
someone to manufacture it for you. However,
if you want to sell your book in stores (or
on Amazon.com), then you need to obtain an
ISBN number. Like everything else in the
Internet age, all you need to get ISBN
numbers is a web browser and a credit card.
There is one international agency, available
online here, that is responsible for handing
out ISBN numbers. I chose to buy a block of
10 ISBN numbers (the smallest amount) for
about US$250.
Another nice thing about getting ISBN
numbers is that you automatically have
access to the books-in-print database. This
is the database that practically every
bookstore and library in the world use when
someone comes in looking for a book. You
can't view the data in the books-in-print
database unless you buy a subscription
(which is very expensive). However, as a
purchaser of ISBN numbers, you can access
this website to enter information about your
books. That way, the books-in-print database
always contains accurate information about
your books.
As for the barcode on the back of the book,
it's just the ISBN number wrapped in some
extra characters (which together are called
an EAN number). In my case, I just use this
EAN generator that I found on the Internet
and a website that generates Postscript
images of the barcode based on an EAN
number.
What software applications
do you use to write and publish your books?
I write the text in Microsoft Word. For me,
I make each chapter a separate document. I
do the page layout in Adobe PageMaker. Once
I have a chapter complete in Word, I do a
CTRL+A to highlight the entire document and
then I paste it into Notepad. From there, I
do another CTRL+A to highlight the entire
document and I paste the content into
PageMaker. By pasting through Notepad, I am
able to strip away all of the weird
formatting that Word uses that confuses
PageMaker. Once the pure text is in
PageMaker, I go through the chapter and
apply all of the text formatting (headings,
bullets, lists, etc.).
For the diagrams, I usually use Visio (since
my diagrams are always network drawings
instead of screenshots). Once I have a
drawing finalized in Visio, I save it as a
WMF file (Windows MetaFile). I import the
WMF files directly into PageMaker after I
have the text laid out. According to the
printer, a lot of people use TIFs or
something like that for their drawings. I
personally like WMFs since they're extremely
small (in terms of file size) and they are
vector-based for infinite resolution.
When I'm done, I end up with a folder full
of PageMaker files—one file for each
chapter. I create a separate PageMaker
document for the frontmatter (copyright
pages, table of contents, etc) and the
backmatter (index, appendixes). I use
PageMaker's "book" functions to update page
numbers across all pages in all documents,
including the table of contents and the
index.
As for the cover, I do all the layout in
Corel Draw. I've used Corel Draw for years
(ever since version 3), and I know it really
well. Unfortunately, Corel Draw is not a
"real" graphics program, and the book
printers won't print anything from a Corel
Draw file. Because of this, after my cover
layout is complete in Corel Draw, I import
the cover file into Macromedia Freehand. I
clean up everything in Freehand, make sure
that all my colors are CMYK instead of RGB,
and print out a sample cover on my inkjet
printer. For color matching, I bought this
book on Amazon.com. It's basically a book of
color swatches printed on a commercial
printer. It allows me to find the colors
that I want to use and enter them into the
computer without having to worry about how
they'll look when they're printed.
Once all my files are finalized, it's time
to send them to the printer. Believe it or
not, the printer prints the book based on a
special PDF file. (Long past are the days of
"camera ready" artwork.) Before I send them
the PDF, I get the "PPD" files from the book
printer. These files contain special
instructions for PageMaker so that
PageMaker's output is a perfect match for
their printing presses. I use PageMaker's
printing functionality to generate a 2400dpi
Postscript file based on my printer's PPD
files. Then, I use Adobe Acrobat Distiller
to generate a PDF from the Postscript file.
How did you get the book
printed?
I use an outsourced contract book printer (UGI
in Mattoon, IL), just like all the large
book publishers including Sybex, New Riders,
and Sams. I send UGI the materials for my
book (and a large check), and a few weeks
later they send me a truckload of books. I
used to send out requests for quotes to
several printers, but UGI has handled my
last four printings, and I've been extremely
happy with them.
Once I have the final PDF and the cover
files for the printer, I burn them to a CD
(along with all the original PageMaker files
and WMF images, just in case). I also print
out a hard copy of the entire book (nothing
special, just a regular laser printout). I
cram everything into a FedEx box along with
my check for the first 1/3 of the printing
costs and send it on its way to the printer.
In about two weeks, I receive the "blueline"
proofs. Basically, this gives me one last
chance to review everything before the book
production begins. After receiving my
package, the printer takes my PDF and makes
printing plates that will be used on the
printing press. The blueline proof is a
single copy of my book's pages sent to me
after the printing plates are made but
before they are used on the press. Assuming
all goes well, my books arrive by semi truck
a few weeks after I've approved the
blueline.
How did you learn about
self-publishing?
I learned just about everything from reading
"The Self-Publishing Manual," by Dan Poynter.
I highly recommend it. You should also check
out his website.