On Fri, 4 Jun 2010, Mulyadi Santosa wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 19:58, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
... snip ...
> > i mention them as i was one of the pre-pub technical reviewers on
> > that first book, and i am the technical editor of the second one.
>
> Great (again). May I (and maybe some of folks in kernelnewbies too)
> know how can you become the reviewer/tech editor of those books?
i don't actually remember how it started. i got my first contract
from ORA thru the senior editor at the time, andy oram. it might have
been when i dropped him a note, suggesting that a viable book would be
one on generic *POSIX* shell scripting, rather than korn or bash
specific. time passed, and i heard from him again, saying that they
decided to go with that and would i be interested in reviewing it. i
*think* that's how it started, and that's where "classic shell
scripting" came from -- you can see my name in the acknowledgements as
one of a number of technical reviewers. apparently, my reviewing was
considered good and i started getting more material to review. at
this point, i'm up to 6 or 7 pre-pub reviews for ORA books alone.
i've done only one technical editorship. that's definitely more
challenging, and that was the upcoming 3rd ed of "linux kernel
development." but i'm guessing there will be more in the future, i
seem to have established myself as having a talent at that sort of
thing. :-)
> > and, no, i don't get anything for every copy sold. i wish.
> Oh really? :) But you get $$$ for being the reviewer and tech
> editor, right? ;)
sure, but you're not going to become independently wealthy being a
reviewer or editor. seriously, when i work it out to what i make on
an hourly basis, i could do better serving burgers and fries. :-)
but i don't do it for the money, i do it partly because i enjoy it,
partly because it's a good way to *really* learn a topic, and partly
because my name will appear in the acknowlegements as either reviewer
and editor and i use that as self-promotion. it's always impressive
when you can pull a book off the shelf, open it up and show people
your name in the front.
as to how others can get that kind of work, that's a tough call.
that kind of work doesn't necessarily require good technical knowledge
so much as language ability. a lot of reviewing involves explaining
why a certain section could be rewritten to be clearer, and making
suggestions as to how to rewrite it. often, the content itself is
absolutely correct *technically*, but it could still use some work to
make it better.
i hope that answers a few questions.
rday
p.s. if there are any publishers reading this looking for reviewers
and/or editors, well, drop me a note. :-)
--
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Robert P. J. Day Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
Linux Consulting, Training and Kernel Pedantry.
Web page: http://crashcourse.ca
Twitter: http://twitter.com/rpjday
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