Hi there. My name is Scott Duffy, and welcome to my book writing log. I have documented the process of writing my last two books on this site, and have started my third. This book will be called Visual Studio Team System In Action, and should be available in 2005.

CD Questions Submitted

Today I submitted 41 multiple choice questions destined for the CD-ROM at the back of the book. I still have to write an identical number of questions for the book's Internet web site.

After taking a week to get started on the task, I basically sat down and wrote them in one afternoon. When you're on a roll, you're on a roll. Hopefully, I can do the same thing tomorrow with the web questions and be done with them.

I promised to have this book in by the end of March, and here we are almost at the end of May. To be fair, I did not know about the CD/Web questions when I signed the deal. But still, I was 6 weeks late on an 8 week project. I've said it before, but this is the last time I'm going to try and write a book in two months. It can't be done. OK, maybe it can be done by others, but I have yet to be able to do it.

One issue may be time. When you only have 1 hour or 2 hours a day to work on the book, if that, not much gets done. When you get a day like today, where I was able to work on the thing the whole day, 12 solid hours, you can get a lot done.

I've contacted my agent about arranging my next book. So far, I have not heard back. I'm thinking of writing about wireless technology. Or maybe another .NET book. Or both.

Scott

Latest Sales Rank Numbers

As you can see, there has been a nice gradual upward trend to the sales numbers for "How To Do Everything with JavaScript". That's very exciting.



I had to do this image myself, because JungleScan has a bug. It doesn't display any sale ranks below 43,000 or so, which cuts off the top half of the graph. I've sent Pud an email to alert him, but there has been no response.

Which is Better?

I went into my local bookstore the other day, and did what I normally do when visiting book stores these days -- I looked for a copy of my book on the store shelves. Lo and behold, it was not there.

So which is better: to go into a store and see your book (which means its available for sale but isn't selling) or to go in and not see it (which means its not available for sale but is selling)?

Another Review

Here's another review for How To Do Everything with JavaScript.

If you maintain a web site or contemplating building one of your own, do yourself a service and examine Scott Duffy's "How to Do Everything with JavaScript".

How exciting!

MCSD Study Guide Update

The final chapter for me, Chapter 8, was submitted last week at a hefty 15,953 words. It was one of those chapters where I could have made it twice as long as it ended up being. I had to cut a few topics short, in the name of brevity.

I was also under heavy pressure (for good reason) to submit the chapter, as I was way past my deadline. There is a lesson to be learned here -- be realistic when setting deadlines. There's also a lesson somewhere in there about taking on too many things at once -- I had four things going on at once that deserved attention equally. So I couldn't devote as many hours a week to writing as I should have.

Anyways, I still have one more obligation before this book can be finished. I am writing some mock exam questions for the CD and supplemental web site. 80 questions in all due from me. These are tough to write as well, but its coming along.

Scott

Sales Peak

Wow. Just checked Amazon.com! My sales ranking is now 38,816. That's a new record high. Cool.

Waterside Productions

My agent, Waterside Productions, has a web site. They really should have my book featured under the Recently Published section. I'm going to talk with them about that. They also have a web page about me. It's not very impressive, but it's better than nothing I guess.

Hello Borders!

I took a little day-trip this weekend with my wife. We went to Buffalo, New York. While there, I stopped into a Borders book store to see if they had my book. They did. That's nice to see. (As a side note, do you see the picture they used to promoted the Borders location on this page? Geez, couldn't they take the picture in summer? The snow is as high as some of the cars in the parking lot!)

I also stopped into a small Waldenbooks inside the Walden Galleria mall. They didn't have it. That store, I must say, is really quite small. They had less than one bookcase that contained all their computer books, so I will give them a break for not carrying my little book.

Author's Guild

Even though I've been writing for two years, I had never heard of the author's guild until tonight.

They have an excellent page on book publishing contracts. Well worth a read, even for veteran authors.

Scott

Crazy Ivan

Here it is, 2:00am, and I am once again working on the last chapter of my latest book. This will make it three nights in a row I have stayed up way, way past my bedtime.

Twice last week, I didn't sleep at all.

This is crazy. I'm at the point in the writing process when I am questioning why I am doing this. See you all on the other side (when the book comes out).

Great Review

I saw the first "review" of my latest book today. All I can say is Wow, Wow, Wow.

First of all, JavaRanch is actually a site I have been visiting for a couple of years. Any review is good, but if you have heard of the reviewer before, it's even better.

Here's the review

Rating: 9 / 10
"How to Do Everything with JavaScript" is a great book for everyone, from the beginner to the expert who needs a good refresher. This is one of many books on JavaScript I have read and this definitely will not leave my desk. "How to Do Everything with JavaScript" can be used as a reference for difficult topics, or a quick guide to the fundamentals of JavaScript. The book topics are covered in great detail with well thought-out explanations and examples. Classes, arrays, functions, objects, DHTML, browser compatibility, debugging your script, frame communication, and countless other things are delivered in manageable chunks which make this book a great resource. Many of the basic questions asked in the HTML and JavaScript forum can be answered just by reading this book!
(Eric Pascarello - Bartender, March 2003)

On that same page, there are books rated 3 and 4 out of 10, so it's not like they were throwing 9's at everything.

Thanks Eric for the kind words!

The Cover Mockup Has Arrived

The MCSD Study Guide I have been working on finally has a cover.



Yes, it had a cover before. But it had someone else's name on it. I couldn't really go around showing it to people until now.

It's a pretty cover. I'm happy with it. I can't wait to see the real book. Speaking of which, what is going on with that you're asking...

Well, the final chapter is taking longer than I anticipated. Not only is the subject matter diverse and hard to write about succinctly (physical application design), but real life is starting to intervene again. I am making a concerted effort to finish this thing tonight, at all costs.

RSS now working

I just realized that Blogger.com only pushes blog entries that have titles out to RSS. So if you have been trying to include the contents of this blog in one of those RSS aggregators, my apologies. It should work now. ;)

JungleScan spike

My JungleScan spike continues. This is a cool tool -- many thanks to Pud at F*dCompany.com for creating it and placing it on the web for people to use.



I got word today that Barnes & Noble will be featuring my book (or, more precisely the entire How to Do Everything series) this summer in all their stores. They've placed a big order (big for me, in any event) of How to Do Everything with JavaScript and will be placing them as "end caps" -- a display at the end of an aisle. Whoo hoo!