Wanted: Drupal book authors
I've recently been contacted by a number of publishers that are actively looking for Drupal book authors. Packt Publishing sent me such a request today. They would like to hear from Drupal users any Drupal book ideas they may have and would like to see published, even if a proposed book caters for the needs of a smaller section of the Drupal community. They are also interested in hearing from any Drupal user who is interested in writing about Drupal, whether they have a specific book idea or not. If you have a book idea or if you are interested in writing about Drupal, let me know in the comments, and I'll introduce you to the right people.
The cool thing about Packt Publishing is that they have a lucrative Open Source Project Royalty scheme. From all the Drupal books published to date, the one from Packt Publishing generated the most royalties for the Drupal Association. That alone gives me sufficient reason to publish their call for Drupal book ideas and Drupal book authors.
I think I'm up to write for this. My target audience would be Churches and Ministries. I would do something in similar form to the podcast series I did on Drupal but in better form since I could use visuals.
Rob Feature (aka Bob Christenson), my partner on the podcast, is game to do this with me.
August 29, 2007 - 17:33Dries,
I think this book need to coverage a full website project. Can be a community "web 2.0" site or news portal. This would help the many people that have problems to customize a Drupal installation based in the current site documentation.
This book shall be written collaboratively, with the folks that have experience, like the guys from observer.com and lullabot.com (and so many others!)
What do you think?
Abraços,
August 29, 2007 - 17:39Eriksen
Maybe a "Drupal recipies" book aimed at non developers? It would detail how to build typical websites: blog, gallery, brochure, online game guild, whatever... and describe how to build the basic features, which module to use, etc.
No need to be very technical, most modules are straightforward, but the more advanced ones (Views, CCK, ...) would require detailed explanations.
August 29, 2007 - 18:39We're currently in the middle of writing just such a book for O'Reilly and Associates. ;)
August 30, 2007 - 01:39I'd be interested in writing a "Drupal for nonprofit organizations and political campaigns" book. I have 20 years of nonprofit experience and several years working with Drupal. The Howard Dean campaign brought Drupal to the awareness of many Americans and the spinoffs from those developers have fed many additional nonprofit and political sites.
August 29, 2007 - 20:06I'm interested in exploring this. My basic idea is to write on how to make a hierarchical site with Drupal, but then adding in dynamic elements from blog posts, rss feeds, podcasts, etc... Basically Drupal for organizations (like the one I work for http://law.hamline.edu).
August 29, 2007 - 20:27Hey Dries,
I've worked on about 20 different Drupal sites in the past 6-12 months, and all the configurations have been different. I've been following Drupal since 4.5.
Two ideas I've been fleshing out.
1. Drupal Cookbook
August 29, 2007 - 20:562. How to run a Drupal business. I've learned some good practices, and had some difficult experiences. I think sharing both could help grow the developer pool and help lessen that crunch.
A few days ago I've announced on Drupal.org's forums (http://drupal.org/node/169198) that I'm starting to write a new Drupal-related book focused on the accessibility issue. I've been surprised by the "zero" replies received but apart from this I was expecting for someone suggesting me a good way to send the book to the press.
Feel free to contact me at royalfamily [at] email [dot] it.
August 29, 2007 - 21:30"Theming Drupal: The Beautification of Drupal"
August 30, 2007 - 02:09Definitely a great idea for web designers!
August 30, 2007 - 08:27Templating is nice and flexible in Drupal but can get complex on websites with advanced features.
The subject of theming for web designers should be on the top of the list.
From basic concepts to the super advanced. I've been cleaning up themes made by others and the amount of mess is insane. A through understanding of how it all works would clear out the air and likely bring in more designers.
I hope to make a dent with the theming handbooks. There's just too much bad information on Drupal theming out there.
I'm not sure I'd be cutout for writing a whole book on the subject but it's badly needed.
September 18, 2007 - 15:54Dvessel -
If you'd like a hand on the writing front, please feel free to contact me. I'm a writer and editor with a certain amount of experience in covering (and now using) cutting-edge technologies, and I'm eager to help tell the Drupal story. You can see more about me on my blog, Creative Leaks, or contact me directly for a resume.
And I agree - theming for Drupal is SORELY needed!!
Best in your endeavors -
MJD
October 21, 2007 - 15:58This would be a great way for me to be able to contribute. As a longtime software developer and architect, I was brought up to speed from the Drupal Dojo experience, in which those who knew brought up to speed those who would like to know, from a developer perspective.
I wrote up a number of lesson notes, and feel I have those necessary skills.
Ever since the Dojo experience, I "dove into Drupal", and have helped bring up to speed quite a number of people around me, in the group working with me on a number of projects over the last twelve months, as I have intensely leapt into a whole series of demanding projects that has pretty well defined my lifestyle.
I have written up some of my mini-achievements in the Drupal world in my technical blog, http://awebfactory.com.ar
So I have two basic ideas:
What you are proposing sounds like an ideal vehicle for these ideas, and would be a way of giving something back to the community, since I have been too busy as Drupal developer actually using Drupal over the past year with a heavy workload getting my projects finished to actually contribute whole modules, or do any reviews or patches in the effort to get Drupal 6 out the door.
Victor Kane
August 30, 2007 - 09:38http://awebfactory.com.ar
How about translating/writing a book on Drupal in Spanish? The 'Drupal recipes' book mentioned above would be a good topic for me. Many people out there cannot fully take advantage of a book written in English, even less if they are not developers. And as you mentioned before in a post of yours about internationalization, 90%, or so, of the world population doesn't speak English. I would be willing to write/co-write a book on Drupal in Spanish.
August 30, 2007 - 11:55Una excelente idea!
¿Tal vez podríamos hablar sobre esto durante DrupalCon?
Tengo en mente el camino de aprendizaje de los drupaleros que están trabajando ahora conmigo. Pero también podría ser sobre un "recetario".
saludos,
Victor Kane
August 30, 2007 - 17:43http://awebfactory.com.ar
Spanish and/or Catalan (we have a great community here) would be a great idea!!, but also, I will like to help on translating a book that is being written so the original and translation could get on the market at the same time.
Paco
September 3, 2007 - 10:56I have been putting ideas & notes together for two books, both related to personal interests and projects.
The first is using Multimedia in Drupal (related in part to my work with Embedded Media Field, but also with my experience with the traditional means within Drupal). This would cover the methods available to embed Images, Video and Audio, particularly how to make the experience of embedding media (whether local or external) in Drupal easier for the content editors.
The second, more long term, is using Drupal to create online games. This is tied largely to my work with the RPG module, which is still in development. Ideally, I would like to launch that book soon after the module is complete and some sites are using it.
Dries, feel free to put me in touch with interested parties -- I'm ready to put more serious work into making these books a reality.
August 31, 2007 - 15:18I like the first idea. I think we need to make the things easier to the final users. Embedding media is very important im many projects and having a easy way to embed them (like in Wordpress) also is good.
Take us update from the RPG module. This can be of great usage on e-learning.
September 17, 2007 - 18:34Thanks for this posting Dries, and thanks to everyone who has expressed their ideas.
There are some great ideas here! Everybody is welcome to contact me directly at doug@packtpub.com, and I will be very happy to discuss your ideas further. I'm a Senior Acquisition Editor with Packt, and I will talk with you to get a better view of your ideas, work with you to develop these into concrete book proposals, and tell you about the authoring process. It is entirely possible that you may have heard from me already - if not, then do get in touch!
Thanks,
Douglas Paterson
August 31, 2007 - 22:29Senior Acquisition Editor
Packt Publishing
An idea from a completely different approach.
"Drupal for the end user". How to post and manage content as well as users on your Drupal site.
I, like everyone else here, have created many Drupal-based websites and the biggest hurdle I have with every single one of them is training the end user exactly how to use it. While the interfaces for accessing the content, etc. might differ based on theme the basics across all sites are roughly the same and there is, unfortunately, very little documentation designed for the end user.
The book would cover items such as:
What is a node and why do I care?
Sticky, its not for gum anymore!
Comments are not nodes!?!
How to implement moderation
Revision control, its power and simplicity
Attack of the spam bots, how to fight back
....and much, much more!
Mainly sticking on the surface of Drupal it would only dive in uploading and enabling modules towards the end in the "Advanced" section.
I'd love to have a small <200 page book on the basics that I could bundle with every website I built.
September 8, 2007 - 05:17Jacob, would you like to co-write this? I'm in with both feet on a project like that, and its so desperately needed by everyone who's ever deployed a site for a client.
September 11, 2007 - 18:55I'd be up for it.
September 17, 2007 - 02:02Coming late to the party here, but hey, better late than never. I'd be interested in working on/collaborating on a book detailing uses of Drupal in educational/training contexts.
Cheers,
Bill
September 23, 2007 - 23:31I would definatly be interested in creating a development book, themeing would also be very nice, I have a wide range of knowledge in all areas of development / design.
September 27, 2007 - 17:05Theming
Views
CCK
Taxonomy
Even better, a complete book about every chapter in the Pro Drupal Development book. I'll buy them all.
October 16, 2007 - 14:34Dries:
Please put my name in the hat as a writer who would love to collaborate with developers who have ideas that need expressed and organized. What a great opportunity to help with this movement!
-MJ in Austin
October 21, 2007 - 16:04I'm working on a book in German. It covers many of the topics addressed here. For translation to English, I'm searching a translator. It is also possible to act as a co-author. Feel free to contact me at drupalbook@it-arts.org. If someone searches a translator form English to German, I'm willing to do this.
Thomas
November 7, 2007 - 12:39from Munich
I like to think I'll write a book on theming some time but I'm not sure if I could manage to free enough time for a whole book, I mean a decent book is like 300.000 words I reckon? And then theres the additional research to make sure what you write is still relevant, and good practice.
January 16, 2008 - 23:23Hey dries,
April 17, 2009 - 09:55I dnt really have any such idea for a book.
But i could write if i am given one.
The only problem will be that i have not published any book before.
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