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Tools & Surprises For a Tech Book Author?

Posted by kdawson on from the chisel-and-clay-tablet dept.

Fubari writes "I have questions for those of you who have written books: what writing tools have you found helpful? I want to start my book off right (so I'm pretty sure I don't want to write it in MS Word). What has and has not worked well for you? So far I have thought of needs like chapter/section management, easy references to figures (charts, diagrams, source code), version control (check in/check out parts like chapters, figures, etc.), and index generation. I would also welcome advice about what I don't know enough to ask about. Did you encounter any surprises that you wish you had known about back when you started out?"

3 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. Well. by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'd recommend www.thepiratebay.org.
    There's also TorentReactor too for nice compilations.

    Oh wait... you want to MAKE books? Oh, nevermind.

    --
  2. A feather by Hognoxious · · Score: 2, Funny

    A feathere, from ye leftmost winge of a plump female goose. Fie, begone from mine pelousse, thou insolent knayve!

    -- I Newton

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  3. Use LaTeX by justanothermathnerd · · Score: 2, Funny

    LaTeX with the associated tools (BibTex, makeindex, etc.) worked very well for a textbook that I coauthored. It was also the publishers prefered format, although they sent our LaTeX source out to a commercial type setter who proceeded to mangle the mathematics in unimaginable ways. Who knew that when an integral ends in "dx", the "d" and the "x" should be on the same line?