“Part of the issue of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals, but that's one of the hardest things to do because you don't always know exactly where you're going, and you shouldn't.” – George Lucas
This is a really good quote that has pretty much summed up the past few months. For the last year or so, I’ve been a technical editor for Microsoft Press / O’Reilly Media on a few projects (My personal favorite so far is “Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Plain & Simple”, written by Jonathan Lightfoot (@exnav29) and Chris Beckett (@sharepointbits).
Technical editing is fun work – but I have a strange idea of fun (ask anyone who knows me!). This type of editing, involves three distinct steps:
- Read a chapter
- While reading, look for omissions or errors
- Run through any instructions shown to check that they are correct, clear, and accurate
Like I said – FUN!
I mean, how else do you get to see a book that no one (outside of the authors and editors) has gotten to read?
After I had completed my last book edit, I was invited to write a few chapters in an upcoming Microsoft book, entitled: Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Inside Out. I was excited to hear that I would be a co-author with people whose work I had previously read:
- Penelope Coventry (@pjcov)
- Johnathan Lightfoot (@exnav29)
- Thomas Resing (@resing)
- Errin O’Connor (@errinoconnor)
- Michael Doyle (@SharePointNinja)
The last few months, I have had the privilege to be both a writer and a technical editor on this book, although a lot of chapters (including mine) were edited by Marlene Lanphier (@MarleneLanphier, and my better half).
I was excited to hear that portions of this book have now made it into Rough Cuts, which gives readers the opportunity to purchase the early version of the book (electronic, paper, or both) and then receive the completed book when it is published.
Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Inside Out
Go have a look, tell us what you think!
