[OSGeo-Discuss] Your open source career

[Bruno Lowagie]

Landon Blake wrote:
> The lack of good user documentation is a weakness of many open source
> projects. The problem is that most of us like to code, but few of us
> like to write!

Speak for yourself! ;-) Am I the exception to the rule? *LOL*

Please don't regard the following as shameless promo. I just want
to share a very interesting experience with future F/OSS writers.

I'm an Open Source developer ( http://www.lowagie.com/iText/ )
but I also like to write. In 2004, I took some time off from
my day job to write a free online tutorial for iText because
the lack of proper documentation was a problem that had to be
addressed (you're right about that, Landon).

Once the first pages of the free tutorial were online, I immediately
received an offer to write a book about iText, first from O'Reilly,
later on also from Manning. After long consideration, I decided to
try writing a book for Manning Publications Co. because they have
the reputation that they are very demanding.

You may think I'm a masochist, but I thought that would be the
best guarantee to write a good book. And it was! I talked with
some authors who claimed that writing their first book for
Manning was a good choice. In hindsight, I agree, although I
might choose for O'Reilly next time ;-)

I spent 3 months writing the book proposal (full TOC included).
6 months writing the manuscript. After these 9 months of hard
labor, another 9 months were needed to get the book ready for
production (copy editing, proof reading, making the index,...).

The result is: http://www.1t3xt.com/docs/book.php

Want to know how much I earned? No problem! Have a look at
my Quarterly overviews here:
http://www.lowagie.com/maand.php?year=2008&month=4#806
The revenue listed is limited to the Royalties. You don't
get rich from writing a book, but I also have indirect revenue
from sales (when people buy the book after clicking a link on
my site). I get 10% Royalties and if you study the Quarterly
Overviews, you'll see that the sum I get for each book varies
depending on many factors (time, location,...).
I get between 5% (Amazon) and 15% (Manning) for selling the
book using a link on my site.

But it's not only about the money: the product has gotten
much more attention and it has really boomed! Having a book
is (almost) a guarantee for success for every F/OSS project.

If you are planning to write a book, and you want an introduction
at Manning Publications; or if you just want to talk about starting
such a venture, let me know, and we'll chat.

I know plenty of people who dream of writing a book, how I would
like to persuade them that they should just start writing.
I like to quote Henry David Thoreau: "If you have built castles in
the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be.
Now put the foundations under them."

best regards (and please pardon my enthousiasm),
Bruno Lowagie