David Barnes @ Packt

writing computer books that people want to buy 
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Ditch the "History of the Internet" chapters

Your book doesn't need to cover the history of the Internet. Unless you happen to be writing a book called "The History of the Internet". If you are, good luck to you.

History of the Internet chapters usually appear when a new technology makes use of a whole bunch of preceding technologies. The author can't conceive that anybody could understand this new tool, without learning about all the old technologies that it relies on.

Readers hate it when books start this way. Readers are fickle creatures, swift to judge -- and if the first chapter reads like a history text book then they'll assume the whole book does. Cut out the history chapters.

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Comments (6)

Jun 30, 2009
Alfonso Romero said...
Man, I just had to leave a comment here to tell the world I totally agree with you!
Jul 13, 2009
Geoff Sauer said...
I completely disagree. So many writings today claim to understand an "essential" quality of the modern Internet -- its timeless, acontextual true nature -- and they each disagree with one another. The ONLY way to make credible sense of emerging Internet technologies is in the context of their history, IMHO.
Jul 30, 2009
I agree - at the end of the day you could publish a book that has the history of the internet included in full, in 100% accuracy. But if people are going to be put off by it, they won't buy the book in the first place. Good writing is about capturing the reader, and not torturing them. Nice post - I liked it a lot.
Sep 23, 2009
Meseret Hailu said...
Nice. I agree. Jus I need a pan firend.
Sep 28, 2009
Suzan said...
Nice google
Oct 16, 2009
sdas said...
asdasd

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