azat-co/ato-2018-writting

build-lists: true autoscale: true

Azat Mardan

All Things Open 2018

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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

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239 most active GitHub contributor

^http://bit.ly/2PMa26I

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Why bother?

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Written communication is everywhere

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

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5 reasons writing will only grow

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

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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)?

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My Story

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

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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

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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

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Tips to come up with a topic

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

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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

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Two way to publish a book

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

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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

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This lecture is not a rocket science.

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

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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

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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