How I authored two technical books under the age of 27
Initial words
Hi, I am Naren Yellavula, a 27-year-old software professional. If aliens dramatically steal me from this earth tonight, I don’t have to regret it because I already left my legacy in history. How? I authored two technical books on web development with the Go programming language. Am I feeling proud? Yes, but only humbly.
In this article, I want to share what it takes to write a book, my mental journey throughout the development, and how it can inspire you to become a future author. First of all, I am one of the firm believers of marathons over sprints. Every crucial aspect of our lives like success, money, long-lasting relationships are marathons. They never come overnight. A simple formula that I trust is “Work hard in the beginning and enjoy the fruits those follows.”
There are no shortcuts. You have to work hard, brother!
Let me introduce my books to you. My first book published in December 2017 with the title “Building RESTful web services with Go.” It was well-received world-wide with thousands of paperback and e-book copies sold on amazon and Packt. The second edition Hands-On RESTful Web Services with Go was published in February, 2020. I am also happy to say that my books are available for students in more than a hundred libraries world-wide and 19 universities in Germany. By saying that, I can safely assume that my books are not a failure.
I write books for developers like me. For the people who work day after day, and improve this world by building software. I also actively followup the developer engagement on my book’s code repository and reader queries. I love getting feedback. You can ask me what compelled me to write a book in the first place? Is it money, fame? Let me give you my answer.
For what I didn’t write my books?
Like many budding authors, I wanted to prove myself in the tech industry by contributing to open-source. I didn’t write books for the sake of the things mentioned below.
Personal branding (X)
Even though personal branding might look alluring to anyone, it is not in my list of motivators. I know that cyber people will get to know me when they find the value out of my works, whether they are blogs or books.
Book-writing experience (X)
The authoring experience alone tempts many authors. Even though it is not a terrible idea, that can impact the quality of the book’s outcome. For me, this is not a significant factor when I started writing.
Economical benefits (X)
Trust me. Technical books will not make you anywhere close to wealthy. With few exceptions, the royalty you earn may only support you in going for a nice vacation or buying gifts for your family or friends. Money is Money! Many people might target it when they accept writing a book, but I didn’t.
Why I wrote a book?
Individual responsibility (✔)
When I work in a team, I collaborate, I get feedback, whenever I lose motivation, my teammates cheer me up. There are also incentives if you perform well. But when I signed up a contract for my first book in 2017, everything is new to me, and the whole concept is a dark space. There are no cheerleaders once you start writing. An author should be their cheerleader. I have to manage myself while writing a book.
One thing I strongly felt was, “If I can manage to finish this year-long project on time, there will be nothing I cannot achieve. I can be a one-person army, isn’t it?”
That psychological feeling is more valuable than money or brand, which are frequent motivators for an author. It has magical long-term benefits.
Learn while explain (✔)
I also believe one learns better when he/she explains. It slows down the time and gives us space in our heads to think. Putting initial ideas on paper helps to refine thoughts in mind. By authoring a book, I can also learn personally.
Help fellow developers (✔)
I had written 60+ tech and programming articles on word-press and medium before I ever wrote a book. I did it for two things:
- Flush my knowledge to an online diary.
- Share it with fellow developers, so they too, can benefit from it.
I wanted my book to do the same thing. Help fellow developers.
Make new connections(✔)
Writing a book for a reputed publisher gives you the luxury of having a big team that consists of:
- Acquisition editors
- Content editors
- Technical reviewers
- Proofreaders
- Typesetters
- Graphic designers
All of them are humans like me. If one writes a book, on an average, he/she can make at least 8 new social connections. That is a valuable thing for me. Making new friends is always on my radar, and book-writing cause helps.
How I got into writing?
I got into writing from the end of 2013. I started blogging on word press with a name called “impythonist”. There, I used to write about my learning in Python programming language. It has been very successful. That blog got around 1 million views over the next two years. Then, I looked for a place that can give me additional room for blogging about various other topics. Medium is a natural choice. I started blogging about JavaScript and Go along with Python. Most of the things are from my work experiences.
From 2013 until now, I maintained the writing streak. I kept this habit of writing by finding some time to put my ideas on paper. That later helped me writing a couple of books in four years.
A journey with Packt
In March 2017, people from Packt were searching for a potential author on the topic of REST API with Go programming language. I wrote a few successful blog articles at the same time, and I caught their eye.
An acquisition editor dropped me a proposal for writing a book. I agreed on the given project, prepared, and sent back an abstract. Editors contacted their technical counterparts and suggested few changes to the abstract, and I have done that. The next step is sending a detailed outline of the chapters.
I sent back a detailed outline of chapters. Editors are only convinced after few improved iterations and sent me a 10-month contract to sign. Packt gave a team of content editors and technical editors to me. I initially trusted that I could write a book because it has ten-odd chapters. Each chapter is around 20–25 pages. Before that, in my blog, I occasionally wrote an 8-page length article. That turns out to 3 articles effort/chapter.
So I have to write 30 articles in the space of 10 months that included working on initial drafts, fixing editor’s comments, setting technical reviewer’s comments, and checking prefinal.
With a full-time job and a writing hobby, It is tough to find time for relaxing as you are always engaged. The deadlines sometimes haunt you even in the sleep, but it is an author’s choice to agree on the book writing schedule. Once you sign the contract, it is unprofessional to ask for changes, in my opinion.
Motivation & hurdles
As everyone says, I too agree that writing a book is hard, but not impossible. The truth is spending hundreds of hours of personal time in turmoil may not sound attractive at all. One can slightly overcome that boredom if they are passionate about what they write because it automatically cheers up a soul. Let me tell you how my mood was back then.
When I began writing, the first few chapters felt fresh and exciting. But around half-way, I have to swallow the reality. For Ex: I should check consistency within sections, across chapters, a solid story connecting the start to end. With personal commitments and vacations, it becomes even harder. Moreover, no cheerleaders, I am a lonely sailor.
I think the biggest hurdle is a consistent loss in motivation, which happens with any human brain. As I already said, money never appealed to me, so I cannot stick to writing just for fear of losing money.
Motivation is like a Sine wave that has crests and troughs.
The key is how one collects all the crests to sail over the finish line successfully. I have both good days and bad days. Code samples don’t compile, or they suddenly stop working after a few months, last moment review comments from content and technical editors which could re-haul a quarter of a chapter, the hindrances are infinite.
In my limited writing experience, I see discipline and persistence are two main aspects that can help an author overcome motivation problems. Sticking to a schedule and delivering on-time depends on our control over time.
Time may not be manageable for many people who are committed to family relationships. It is cruel to avoid altogether loving ones to meditate on writing a book for a year. Luckily, for me, I am a bachelor with significant reserved time at home. Cooking sometimes occupies its share but not other things. It is one more positive factor that worked in favor of me — moving to a new country, learning a new language, unplanned vacations, etc. dented my motivation a few times. Apart from those, there are always lots of distractions in the form of news and the internet.
There are many days when I kicked myself to get back on track/cross over the line.
The Sinewave, in a different way, taught me how easily one could lose motivation as well as can gain it. I sometimes used to fear of getting too far from the book schedule train. Surprisingly, I am much closer every time to motivation than I feared. Only one or two small adjustments are required to get back on track.
The point of this picture is to say, “Always trust that when you hit a bad patch while writing, you can easily get back to motivational highway. Don’t let fear of incomplete book swallow you ”.
Complete concentration is a myth. It is ruthless persistence that wins your goals. Life may not be a comfortable winning ride from the likes of Alexander and Napoleon, but it is also not too harsh to turn you into a complete loser. Remember, Persistence is the key.
Thoughts about writing in future
For now, I take a break from writing books but continue to write articles this year. This article, too, is part of that plan. I advise all young authors to believe that they can achieve anything in this world, how bad situations are. Give a try. You are not going to lose anything.
Any suggestions from me:
I sincerely suggest budding authors read J.K.Rowling’s tips on writing:
If you feel like you have an excellent concept and want to mark it in the developer community, why are you waiting? You can reach out acquisition editors at Packt Publishers here:
Before writing a book or any technical document, try to go through this Google technical-writing course; it is constructive, and topics covered could help one write better.
https://developers.google.com/tech-writing
I hope you enjoyed the article! See you next time.
