build-lists: true autoscale: true

Azat Mardan

All Things Open 2018


About Me

  • Eng. Leader @ Indeed, World's #1 Job Search Site
  • Live in San Fancisco Bay Area
  • Book and course author
  • Paleo lifestyle enthusiast
  • Microsoft Most Valuable Professional
  • ex-Tech Fellow @ Capital One

239 most active GitHub contributor

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^http://bit.ly/2PMa26I


Why bother?


Written communication is everywhere

  • Slack, IM, Google Chat, Skype
  • Wiki, Confluence, GitHub
  • Emails
  • Blog posts
  • Books

5 reasons writing will only grow

  • Precise
  • Cheap
  • Asynchronous
  • Removes bias
  • Fast to consume

5 benefits of tech writing

  • Clears your thoughts
  • Scalable communication and teaching
  • Documentation for future
  • Extra income
  • Prestige

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Who would like to make $300-1000 extra for a few hours of work (at your own schedule)?


My Story

  • Grew webapplog.com from 20 to 2000 visits/day
  • Wrote 200+ posts
  • Wrote for Microsoft, edX, StrongLoop (IBM) and others

Common obstacles

  • I don't have time
  • I don't know anything interesting
  • I am scared of negative comments
  • I don't know where to start

7 Steps to Writing a Blog Post

  1. Come up with a topic
  2. Write an outline
  3. Iterate on the outline
  4. Write the post
  5. Iterate on the post
  6. Publish
  7. Engage with the audience

Tips to come up with a topic

  • Conferences
  • Newsletter
  • Water-cooler convos
  • Your work
  • Things you want to know more about

My Story

  • Not a native English speaker
  • Terrible at typos (speed read)
  • Didn't blog about ground-breaking things

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My Story (Cont.)

  • 18 Books
  • Lots of top-sellers and Amazon best-sellers
  • Speaking and consulting gigs all over the world
  • Wrote first books in 2002

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Writing books


Two way to publish a book

  • Self-publishing: Leanpub, Pandoc, Amazon KDP
  • Traditional publishing: Apress, Manning, Wiley

Would you like to be paid while you sleep?


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10 Steps to writing a book

  1. Decide why you want to do it
  2. Come up with 2-3 topics
  3. Write blog posts to validate
  4. Presell or write&submit proposals to validate
  5. Start writing
  6. Hire tech & copy editing
  7. Review
  8. Publish
  9. Update
  10. Repeat

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What's need to be in a book proposal

  • Detailed outline
  • Target audience
  • About author
  • Keywords
  • Pre-requisites
  • Sample chapter
  • Competitors

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https://www.apress.com/us/write-for-us


This lecture is not a rocket science.


Most of your will never become good writers or publish anything substantial or publish long enough to give yourself a chance to become better.


Why most people never follow through?

  • Afraid of a failure
  • Lack of accountability
  • Too much comfort and not enough whys
  • Cannot break down large tasks into smaller
  • Try to finish everything at once

Home work

  • Write about ATO 2018
  • Find a topic for another blog post or a book
  • Find a mentor and coach

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Further study

  • Write Your Way to Success (Apress, 2018)
  • Using Your Web Skills to Make Money (Apress, 2018)
  • Find a coach and/or mentor

^Take your cameras and take a picture