How to Write a Windows 8 Book, Research and Marketing

Last week I threw down the gauntlet to any readers who might want to write your own Windows 8 book with a couple of posts here and here offering a quick guide to getting started.  One of the biggest problems though is your competition and I thought I’d follow these up with a little information on how you can research your biggest competitors and how and where you can actually publish your book.

You might have a specific book that you want to either emulate in some way or beat at its own game.  This is quite normal as it gives you a baseline.  When you submit a formal book proposal to a publisher then they will expect you to properly research your competition and know what it is they do and how your book will do everything in a more effective way.

You might think it’s extremely difficult if not impossible to find out how well your competitors books are selling, but it’s surprisingly easy.  The website Titlez will allow you to search for specific book types on Amazon, and it will show you their ranking among other information.  You can use this information to see which are the best-selling books so you can measure what you’re doing against them (as obviously these titles will be doing something right!)

Looking at the best-selling comparative titles, which will be Windows 7 books, you will be able to see the types of topics they are covering and how they are doing it.  Visiting the Amazon page for a book will probably allow you to view some pages, and usually the table of contents, so you can evaluate their content.  Don’t ape another book however, you’ll get into copyright issues there, but you may want to go in a completely different direction if you think they’re doing something wrong.

Another tip is to read reviews of these books to see how people are either praising or criticising them.  Some books are highly praised but others, including some best-selling titles also receive a great deal of criticism from the public.  You can learn from these comments how the books are failing and how you can improve on them.

If you want to sell your book, rather than give it away there are many services that you can publish it through.  You can do it through the new iBooks author portal, though currently Apple’s terms create a lock-in that mean you can’t also sell your book anywhere else.  You can also use an independent site like Lulu which is has a great reputation and is the service I self-published my Windows 7 Power Users Guide through, or you can publish directly with Amazon which you may think is your best option given that when people think of books they think of Amazon.

Wherever you publish, try and make sure that you choose an option that gives you an ISBN number.  This may incur a small cost but it does mean that you will be allowed to sell your book on many online stores.  Amazon for example now insist on your book having its own ISBN number in order to qualify for sale.

Research is everything if you want to make your book successful.  Never assume though that self-publishing a Windows book will you rich, it won’t.  If you give away a free eBook though the prospect of getting tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of downloads is quite realistic.  Since making my Windows 7 Power Users Guide free the downloads are well into the high six figures.  It is this success that you can shout about to publishers and that will help add weight and credibility to any approaches you make for a full book deal.

How to Write a Windows 8 Book, a Quick Guide

Yesterday I threw down the gauntlet to any gHacks reader who might want to write a Windows 8 book, perhaps with the long term goal of signing your own book deal with a big name tech publisher.  You can read my article here.  Lee Whittington made a very interesting comment…

I have been turning the idea in my head on writing a Windows 8 Book and aside from writing the book I have no idea where to go from there. You would think with all the information you can find on the internet, you would find everything you need. Lately though, the overabundance of information has actually become an issue, leaving me with alot of information but nothing that really helps.

This is a very good point, that many people who would want to write a Windows 8 book might not have a clue where to start.  I thought then that I’d follow up yesterday’s article with a guide to doing exactly that and getting started writing.

Audience

The first and most important decision to make, as it will influence everything else, is who your intended audience will be.  Who it is you’re writing the book for will determine what type of language you use, the types of images and annotations you use, and how many, and how long and detailed the book might turn out to be.

For example, if you want to write for complete beginners, perhaps something for family and friends and people you provide tech support for, then the tone would be warm and friendly, with an absence of jargon and with every technical word you must use clearly explained at the time.  You will probably want to use a lot of colourful screenshots, with many annotations so that it is very clear to readers what they’re looking at.  You would also want to use a fair few numbered and step by step guides that will help people perform tasks.  Lastly the content for this audience will largely fall around using the new Metro interface, downloading and installing apps and keeping things ticking over easily and quickly.  After all, people in this category simply don’t want to hear anything about installing Windows or the Control Panel, it’s just too complex for many of them.

We move on from there with more business-centric users, perhaps people in your workplace more interested in how to keep working on the desktop and what new productivity and power-saving features are available for them.  Enthusiasts will want to know how to install Windows 8 in different ways and how to configure it, with little in-depth hints and tips to help them get the best from it, and so on.

Size and Content

Now that you’ve determined who your audience will be you need to decide how big the book will be and what the content will be.  A book for newbies would be relatively short, perhaps between 50 and 100 pages, while one for business users might not be much longer and one for enthusiasts might run to 200 or even 400 pages.  It’s important when writing for the first time, especially when you have all your formatting, page layout and editing to do as well not to set yourself a goal that’s too high.  I found 170 pages when writing the Windows 7 Power Users Guide gruelling while also holding down a full time job.  By the time I wrote the 500 page Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out I was down to working only two days a week and writing the rest of the time.  There simply was no other way to do it.

With your page count in mind you should set about writing a draft table of contents, making sure that the page count is foremost in your mind all the time.  Think about how many paragraphs or pages it will take to decribe or walk people through specific subjects and use this as a basis for getting the content to fit your book.

Production

It’s common to write a book in Microsoft Word, after all it’s a writing tool, but Word and other word processors can be limiting in the page formatting they allow you to do.  I used Microsoft Publisher to write the Windows 7 Power Users Guide after quickly realising that I couldn’t do something “visually appealing” enough in Word.  Using a desktop publishing package does present its own challenges with text run on from one page to another difficult among other problems.  Using DTP software though can make for a much more engaging book.  All that said there’s nothing wrong with using Word and some of the advanced layout and imaging tools available can make for very eye-catching designs.  The layout and design can be a slow process to get right however and on the Windows 7 Power Users Guide probably one-third of the three months it took me to write was spent getting the formatting correct.

One very important part though will be the option to either export of print your file as a PDF.  There are many free PDF writers out there, some of which will also export as other eBook formats, but having written your book you’ll want people to be able to read it in a non-editable format.

This is a short and probably simplistic way to look at how you can start writing your book.  It all comes from the planning, and that is why this article has focused so much on that.  Spend time getting your table of contents, page layout, design and voice correct and the rest will fall into place reasonably naturally afterwards.  So good luck and let us know here at gHacks if you release a Windows 8 book on the Internet.

Psst! Fancy Writing Your Own Windows 8 Book?

Three years ago this month I began doing some very serious planning.  Back when Windows Vista was released I wrote a 68 page “Vista Power Users Guide”.  It wasn’t very in depth but was intended as a getting started eBook and was primarily written to help stop friends and family from calling me with tech questions when I was out with friends, each of which would “only take a minute”  ;)  It was very well received though and I decided early on that when the next version of Windows was released I would write a proper book for sale.

Getting a book contract at this point proved pointless, though I did try.  I hadn’t proved myself so eventually in 2008 I decided that self-publishing would be the way forward.  Thus in January 2009 when the Windows 7 beta appeared I began designing page layouts, insert graphics and a draft table of contents for what would be my “Windows 7 Power Users Guide“.  I went through several drafts and designs when writing the first three chapters but eventually found my stride and on August bank holiday, shortly before Windows 7 was released to manufacturing, I released my new eBook and paperback for sale.

As a way of making money they were never going to be the route to my next foreign holiday, and the eBook was made free a year later.  As a 170 page book however I felt that perhaps I could use it to prove my mettle and began contacting publishers through the submission links for new authors on their websites.

There were a few knock back emails I received, and some emails went unanswered but eventually a nibble came in the form of an email from a senior editor at Microsoft Press.  They were looking for someone to write a Windows 7 Troubleshooting book and wanted to know if I was interested.  Two months later the contract was signed and “Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out” was published in October 2010, one year after the release of Windows 7.

Since then I’ve been able to better enjoy the fruits of my labour.  I was given a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable professional) award in the Windows Expert category in January 2011 and this was recently renewed for a second year.  I’ve also spent the last year receiving review hardware from companies including Samsung, ASUS, Nokia and HTC and have had a great many Windows Phones, laptops and more through my door to play with (a very pleasant perk of the job).

Now my Power Users Guide has been formally picked up by US publisher APress and the “Windows 8 Power Users Guide” is scheduled for release this year to coincide with general availability for Windows 8 itself.  I’m also working on an eBook project for Microsoft Press’ parent company O’Reilly for whom I am continuing to run a monthly series of help and how-to webcasts.  In addition I was last year signed by a new publisher, co-founded by the man responsible for making the Dummies books popular, and where Ed Bott is now Editorial Director, and my first eBook for them “Need2Know Office 365 Security Essentials” was released last November.

In short the last three years have been amazing (though very hard work too) and I thought I’d throw down the gauntlet and encourage you to get here too, after all, if I can do it anybody can!  Have you ever wanted a book contract of your own?  Do you want to write about Windows 8 or perhaps the next version of Microsoft Office?  If you do then now is the time to start planning as the public beta for Windows 8 will begin at the end of February.

Writing a book, even one as small as 170 pages (I know, it sounds ridiculous to me too) isn’t easy, doubly so if you’ve never done it before.  It will monopolise your time and you can expect to spend three months writing it in your spare time.  If you have a book about Windows 8 in you though I strongly encourage you to write it.  After all, you never know what opportunities it might open up for you.  The rewards can be unexpected and very welcome, and the feeling you get from helping people is worth it on its own.  ;)  I’d love to read your Windows 8 books later this year and see your particular spins on the format.  Good luck all.

gHacks Editor’s Office 365 Security eBook goes on Sale

It’s been a top secret project I’ve been working on with several people including veteran author and ZD Net blogger Ed Bott.  But today my new eBook, “Need to Know: Office 365 Security Essentials” has gone on sale for the paltry price of $11.45 (£7.42) on Amazon US and UK or just $9.95 direct from the publisher.  Fair Trade Digital Exchange is a new US-based publisher where Ed Bott has taken up the position of Authoring Director.

Fair Trade Digital Exchange is a revolutionary “digital first” publishing company devoted exclusively to technology topics. The Fair Trade DX development model lets us turn content from world-class authors into high-quality books and learning products, at a pace that leaves traditional print publishers in the dust. Unlike other publishers, we treat authors as full partners, and our shared goal is to inform, enlighten, and delight readers.

We’re proud to announce our first four titles, available today in all popular digital formats.

• Need2Know: Ed Bott’s Windows 8 Head Start, by Ed Bott
• Need2Know: Microsoft Office 365 Security Essentials, by Mike Halsey
• Need2Know: Broadcasting your PowerPoint Presentation, by Katherine Murray
• Need2Know: Building ASP.NET Web Pages with WebMatrix, by Jim Wang

I wanted to make this first book a really holistic view at Office 365 security for small businesses.  In this I look at every aspect of business computing from your ISP and Internet connection to your PCs, smartphones, tablets and even employment policies, home working and more.

It’s fantastic to have been invited into such esteemed company as they’re all brilliant authors, and doubly so to be with them during the launch of the publisher and their first new book series.

Regards Office 365 Security Essentials, the publisher says…

Many smaller organizations rely on a few tech savvy managers to ensure that Microsoft Office is configured and deployed to best support core business objectives. If you are one of these indispensable managers, you are probably aware that the online collaboration features of Office 365 also create security risks not associated with desktop versions of Office. In Need2Know: Microsoft Office 365 Security Essentials, author Mike Halsey identifies and explains those risks, and answers essential questions about how to run Office 365 safely and
securely. With a program that eliminates the need for a patchwork of third party solutions, it’s important to harness the tools at your disposal to the fullest.

Microsoft Office 365 Security Essentials shows you how to secure your Office 365 team site, how to manage your users and administrators, and how to employ secure practices with Microsoft and third-party tools, as well as good old common sense. Author Mike Halsey brings wisdom from his extensive work with Microsoft Windows and the Office product family to the table to help you address the security threats you must know how repel in order to protect your company and its assets.

In Microsoft Office 365 Security Essentials, you will quickly learn how to:

• Manage Office 365 email and contacts securely
• Implement team site security effectively
• Handle security when using Office 365 with other Microsoft products
• Create and manage different types of Office 365 user accounts
• Set appropriate permissions on Office 365 team site accounts
• Identify different types of Internet threats, and implement an effective antivirus solution
• Implement common sense password security and use encryption to protect sensitive data

Microsoft Office 365 Security Essentials also includes handy references to safe password creation, secure web browsing, and anti-spam best practices, suitable for sharing with employees and coworkers.

You can find out more about this new book series at the fair Trade Digital Exchange website.

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