Technical Book Publishers
Great Technical Writing: Beware of your Editor/love your Editor
Author: Barry Millman
Overview
Your editor should be an integral part of your writing team. Do not think of him/her as a judge, but rather as a resource to help you in all phases of the writing project. This article will help you overcome any fear of your editor, and how to effectively use your editor during the writing process.
Beware of Your Editor
Some of the changes that an editor might suggest could make the User Document more difficult for your Reader to understand.
Improving Your Writing
Once your editor has gotten past the basic mechanical editing tasks of:
* grammar
* punctuation
* spelling
* editing to a Style Sheet,
he/she may work on “improving your writing.”
Your editor may believe that one way to make the writing more interesting is to use synonyms when you refer back to something. Thus you might call something a “chip bin” in one part of your text, and your editor might suggest using a different term, such as “waste trap,” later in the document. This should make your writing “more interesting.”
You do not want interesting writing in your User Documents! You want clear, simple, very easy to understand writing. If you make your writing more interesting by using the synonym (“waste trap”) then you force your reader to have to think about whether or not these are the same thing. I recommend that you use the exact same wording every place in your User Document where you are referring to the same thing. No synonyms here!
If your Reader wanted to be entertained or have his/her thoughts provoked, then he/she would be reading a novel.
Don’t let your editor make your writing more interesting or more clever if those efforts makes the material harder for your Reader to understand.
Erudition
Another place to beware of your editor is “erudition.” That is, when an editor that tries to make your User Documentation sound more formal. Other than disclaimer, legal, and safety information, the User Document should sound friendly, with a conversational tone.
For example, an editor might suggest changing contractions (such as “don’t”) into their more formal form (“do not”). Don’t do it! Contractions are conversational and they should not be avoided.
If you think about it, most people reading the User Documentation for any product are under some form of stress:
* they either want to get on with using the product, or
* something has gone wrong.
A formal document will put the User off. The document should not be silly or flippant; however, it should provide the information that the User needs in a conversational, easily understood style. The needed information should be easy to find.
Although most word processor grammar checkers are woefully inadequate, many of these checkers can be made to provide a readability score (you may have to set an option to enable this feature). Editing should help increase the readability (indicated by a decrease in the reading grade level) of the document. If editing increases the reading grade level, ask your editor why that score has changed.
What to Do
Provide your editor with the information that will enable him/her to do the best job. Here are some things to tell your editor:
* The intended audience for the User Document
* Tell your editor that you want an informal style of User Document
* What style manual or guide to be used in editing
* Scheduling and progress of the project
* Format for sharing and editing the text (make sure the editor can read your electronic documents — do this when you hire the editor)
(Whenever you are dealing with someone outside your organization, you must have a signed non-disclosure agreement. This is in addition to any other contractual items between the outsider and your organization.)
Get to Know Your Editor
Your editor is NOT your school teacher. In your school days, your teacher-as-editor was a judge. Your goal was to impress your teacher with your writing. You were working for a grade. Thus you may have come to fear your editor.
Change your thinking! Now, your editor is on your side. Your editor will work with you to produce the best possible writing. You will not have to worry excessively about grammar. You goal is to get the information “on paper” as clearly and completely as you can. Your editor will suggest changes to polish the text.
So don’t fear your editor. Make your editor part of your writing team.
Love Your Editor
Hire Your Editor Early in the Project
Hire your editor early in the life of the project. There are at least two benefits to hiring the editor early:
* First, your editor will be prepared for the editing task. He/she will have had time to get to know the product, target audience, and your organization’s style guide.
* Second, your editor can help you with your writing, as I describe below…
Let Your Editor Help You
If you run into problems about how to write something, call on your editor. Most likely your editor can provide an effective wording to get you around your block. That’s one reason why you got the editor on the project early. Here’s another…
A Recommendation
I recommend that you work on small pieces of the User Document, and circulate these small pieces (rough drafts) to the development team for comments. Then use their comments to improve the writing, and re-circulate the improved material. Continue this for a few cycles. I call this “Iterative, Interactive Writing.” This is an effective method for writing quickly and accurately.
If you feel uncomfortable about circulating rough drafts to the product development team for review, here’s a solution. Have your editor perform a quick edit of the rough draft before you circulate it for comments. Your “drafts” will look quite good, and the development team will concentrate on the content, not the wording or grammar (and comments about content are you want from the team).
The Bottom Line
Don’t think of your editor as an enemy lurking at the end of your document production path. Instead, realize that your editor can be a valuable member of your writing team, and is on your side. He/she should:
* Be brought onto the writing project early
* Be kept aware of the status of the writing project
* Be used as a writing, as well as an editing, resource
TIP: It is much more enjoyable for the writer (you) to work with “marked-up” electronic documents, rather than marked-up printed documents. Investigate your word processor’s “multiple reviewers” capability. To employ this capability requires that you and your editor use the same or compatible word processing software.
NOTE: I am not an editor, nor do I represent any editors. But as a writer, I value editing.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/writing-articles/great-technical-writing-beware-of-your-editorlove-your-editor-63776.html
About the Author
Barry Millman, Ph.D., has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (1966, Carnegie Institute of Technology) and a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Psychology (Human Information Processing, University of Calgary). He has been a consultant for over 25 years, an instructor, course developer, and award-winning speaker. For the past seven years he has been researching and creating resources to help organizations create great User Documents. Visit: http://www.greatuserdocs.com/ for resources to help you create the content and access that your Users want and need.
Tagged with: editing • editing user manual • editor • improve writing
Filed under: Uncategorized
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Nothing if you can’t a publisher that will publish it. Before you write the book do a complete “outline” and include that and any other ideas you have and submit that to several publishers. The more the merrier. The publishers that like your ideas and the timetable you suggest for you to complete the book they will offer you a deal. It could be very low pennies a book or it could be very high a dollar or two a book not to mention that if they really really like your idea the may offer you an advance payment to see you through until the royalties start coming in.
Two points; Not many books get published of the ones submitted by authors especially new ones.
If english is not your first language then make sure you have an editor and learn to use spell check. (that is of course if you are writing in english)
You’ll work it out with them as a contractual agreement upon purchase of the book. They may want to pay you a lump sum for the book, and not pay you royalties, or they may want to pay ONLY royalties, etc. I don’t know that particular publishing house, but if you intend to work to change their initial offer, it may be a good idea to get yourself an agent first, as s/he can help you prevent the publishing house from lowballing you.
The best in terms of price/performance has got to be LaTeX. It’s free and is widely used to write lots of scientific papers and books.
If you have a Linux system, you have it already. On Windows there are several free distributions. I use MikTex.
If you have only used WYSIWYG systems like Word, getting started with LaTeX may be a culture shock, but stick with it. There are plenty of tutorials on the Web.
try to check on http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=which%20publisher%20is%20best%20for%20publishing%20technical%20books%20in%20hindi%20and%20other%20indian%20local%20language
Check tax laws in the country you are from.
If you have to employ an illustrator, you can figure AT LEAST a $1,000.00 to $5,000.00 charge depending on the number and complexity of the illustrations. Plus, you want everything in full colour. Apparently, you also need a designer for the whole book, who will design the front cover & back cover, and pagination and margins, and perhaps also the font & type-setting. That is probably another $2,500.00 to $4,000.00 or so. Considering all that, you probably want Perfect Binding, rather than just punching holes in the manuscript and sticking it in a file. Of course, if you want the color photos to come out well, you will use glossy paper rather than regular copier paper.
It is good that you need a (relatively) large number of copies. At 20,000 and more, generally, you get the cheapest price per copy. I would say, at a rough guess, that you are looking at about $20.00 per copy, especially if you have to pay for postage to get 5,000 copies delivered. And that $20.00 per copy cost does not even include the cost (in dollars and in labor) in managing such a project properly.
When you get the CD from the illustrator and another CD from the book designer, be sure to BACK IT UP! I would put it on a hard-drive, network drive, flash-drive AND another CD, just to be sure.
You’re lucky! I wish I had this job 🙂 I’d make a pretty good profit on it considering the number of hours I would have to work with several different people, managing the project. Good luck! If all goes well, I would like to know how the project turned out, in the end.
Why did you post this in the Special Education section? Does this have something to do with students with disabilities?
Mark’s Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers.
Your biggest issue right now is impatience. That will kill any real chances your novel may have no matter how good it is. If your writing and hopes for publishing mean that much to you then please take the time to query agents and publishers. Yes, you may get it rejected several times and it could take a few years if anything happens at all. But if you value your work then take the time to invest in it properly.
If the only reason you are doing this is for fame/popularity then you’re doing it for the wrong reason. Do this because you love to do it, not because popularity matters.
Pick up a copy of “The Writer’s Market” and start doing your research. You owe it to your manuscript to give it a chance other than the self-publishing route. Self-publishing isn’t entirely a bad thing, mind you, but definitely not the best route.
How can I copyright an old technical volume?
How do I copyright a technical volume that was copyright over one hundred years ago. I did the search for author, title and publisher and found nothing. I looked in the copyright documents but did not find what I was looking for. Or maybe I saw it and never understood what I read. I would like to register the book in my name.
how much publishers pay to a book author?
I’m writing a technical computer book and I like to know how much loyalty fees does the publisher possibly pay me as a book author?
How much for deliveing the script and how much per book? The possible publisher may be Sams Publishing. Any Idea?
How much publishers pay to a book author?
How much publishers pay to a book author?
I’m writing a technical computer book and I like to know how much loyalty fees does the publisher possibly pay me as a book author?
I need an average estimate to just have an idea about book writing.
How can I estimate the cost of book production?
I normally work with publishers, but a client has come to me wanting me to write a book for their company. I know what I’ll charge for the writing, but they want me to contract all of the project. What can I expect to pay for:
technical illustrator (illustrations on nearly every page)
art / design for entire book
printing (~5000 copies, 100 pp. each, soft cover, 4-color throughout)
I’ve spoken to a few printers locally, but get a lot of runaround. I think they want to seal a deal before committing to a price. I just need to provide an estimate, not a quote to the client.
I am an author and a faculty member in an Technical education Institute.Is 194j is applied on my book royality
In fact, my publisher is deduting tds according to 194j above a royality of 20,000 p.a.
Even though In my institute,my salary tds is already deducting
Is there any such kind of provison
What is the best way to self publish a book?
I’ve been researching on what I needed to do to get a book out from those POD (print on demand) publishers like Lulu and Createspace, and I’m having trouble on copyrights and isbn numbers. Mostly the technical stuff that I really don’t want to mess with until I get an understanding of them.
Should I even bother to get a copyright registered? They cost around 35 bucks online.
Also, should I get my own ISBN number or does it even matter that I get an ISBN number created by Lulu or Createspace?
My goals aren’t too great in the financial department. I know that I’m not going to make a living out of my book, but it would be nice to get at least some money out of it. (get at least a hundred sold, more would definitely be great) I still want it to have potential to be popular or be made into a movie script or something. So that leads to my other question. Should I just send a manuscript to an authentic publisher instead? The problem I have with that also is that that would take a long time for it to be published and I would like it to be published fast enough when I’m done with the story.
If I self publish, will the authentic publishers not even consider my work if I don’t take it off the market (or have an ISBN from lulu or createspace)?
Which publisher is best for pubilshing technical books in Hindi and other Indian local language?
I would like to publish my book about method of machine maintenance in Hindi & other Indian local languages. Could someone advice which publisher is best for this work?
What is the best technical book writing software?
Is it microsoft word or publisher or something else. I am thinking about writing an book on wireless communications for electrical engineers but need help in choosing the right software.
Which book to refer? [FOR MECHANICAL ENGG. STUDENT ]?
Which book to refer? [FOR MECHANICAL ENGG. STUDENT ]
i want a NAME of an excellent BOOK with publisher,author and cost of the same that can summarize the undergraduate MECHANICAL ENGG. SYLLABUS, that will be helpful for me during TECHNICAL INTERVIEWS/CAMPUS PLACEMENT.
P.S: all ANSWERS and SUGGESTIONS/ADVICE will be looked upon. [B.E final year student]
Did Germany industrialize so quickly in the late 19th century because of its lack of copyright laws?
http://blog.mises.org/13622/germany-and-its-industrial-rise-due-to-no-copyright/
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,710976,00.html
During the 19th century in Britain, only 1000 new books were published each year. The British book publishers became fabulously wealthy, but 10 times as many books were published in Germany, which was a more decentralized country. Although Prussia adopted a copyright law in 1837, in most of Germany, copyright was not enforced in most of Germany. In Germany, the publishers had to deal with competitors who would reprint cheaper copies of books, so they printed books in affordable paperback editions.
Since the Germans were able to acquire books at a more affordable price, the German people became better educated than the British people and thus were able to industrialize and catch up to Britain by the turn of the 20th century.
In 19th century England, due to the high price of books (which made them unaffordable for ordinary people), there were very few books written about technical subjects. Yet, in Germany, there was a thriving market in technical literature.
Of course, it is also well-documented that the British Industrial Revolution didn’t take off until after James Watt’s patent on the steam engine expired, allowing others to improve upon his design.
Considering the evidence that intellectual “property” is harmful to economic development, shouldn’t we consider getting rid of patents and copyrights?