Passionate full stack developer, course author for Educative, book author for Packt.
Find my work and get to know me on my Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thormeier
That's a great question! Yes, there was. The publisher originally expected around 250 pages, which turned out to be more in the end. I think more than that would've been very hard, since there's only ever so much you can write about without watering down the content and actually losing focus. I could've added more about the history of grids, polyfills, design aspects, etc., but then it would've been less of a tutorial book for the technology itself. Less than 250 would mean that I woujld have had to condense the content, losing the opportunity to explain details.
With the index, foreword, glossary and additional content about related books, the final product has 330 pages total, however, the 260+ pages of actual content felt like a very sensible choice.
When creating the outline, I had to give estimations about how many pages each chapter would roughly fill and we double-checked that the sum was roughly 250. Especially after the tech review, I had to expand the explanations on some aspects, which resulted in some extra pages, totalling at around 263 in the end.
Passionate full stack developer, course author for Educative, book author for Packt.
Find my work and get to know me on my Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thormeier
Don't be sorry, wanting to learn is never a bad thing and I love answering all your questions! 😀
"Following" and "previous" are good substitutes. So, instead of talking about the "above figure", I would write "the previous figure", or mention the figure number directly, i.e. "As shown in figure 3.14". My own mind is usually very focussed on locality when it comes to ordering information, so it took me a bit to adjust to that, but once I got used to this technique, it worked fine. I recently read a papeback book that did not follow that approach and I immediately noticed why using "above" and "below" doesn't work. If the formatting is just slightly different in the final product than it is in the draft, you might end up having "the above figure" as the first line of a page on the left (assuming LTR writing), meaning there is no "above" or "left" at all. "Previous", on the other hand, circumvents that.
While writing, I used MS Word only, so I added section titles, paragraph spacings, figures, code examples etc. in there directly. The page target included these, so what counted was the actual page count of the Word documents. Figures also transport information, although in a different format, so counting them is sensible. Code examples, especially with comments, allow the reader to understand what is going on by being able to look at actual examples of things being used, which is yet another way of conveying information. I think the publisher used page targets to get a sense of how large the end product will be. A word count of, say 10k words (roughly 20 pages, according to A Popular Search Engine™) may produce a wildly different page count if there are a lot of figures vs when there are no figures at all. A page count keeps things manageable.
I hope this answered your questions, is there anything else you want to know? ☺️
Thanks for the detailed info. Just one more thing please: it sounds like it was quite hectic - especially towards the end. How did you find time for everything, especially with a full-time job? Did you have to set aside strict time blocks for writing?
Passionate full stack developer, course author for Educative, book author for Packt.
Find my work and get to know me on my Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thormeier
You're right, it was quite hectic at times and sometimes I struggled to meet the deadlines. We didn't rush it, though, and usually the project manager and editor were very understanding if I had good reasons for not meeting a deadline, such as falling ill (I caught a nasty flu halfway through), family business or holidays.
I tried to stick to a rhythm, spending one to two hours per day writing. I would use train rides and other idle time to work on the project, too. I tried getting up really early for a few weeks, work on the book before breakfast and then work on my job. That worked surprisingly well, especially since I did not have to write for two hours after already working for eight.
Sometimes I had to spend the weekend, though, working for some four to eight hours per day, but I think that was a necessary sacrifice that I was more than willing to make. Handing in a large chapter I was happy with, gave me a feeling of achievement, and that was usually enough to compensate for not being able to play video games that day lol. Luckily my partner was very supportive and had my back in crunch times. Don't underestimate the support you get from loved ones during such a project. Helping each other thrive can strengthen the bond so much.
Is there anything else you want to know? I'm happy to answer all your questions! 😊
Thank you so much!
That's a great question! Yes, there was. The publisher originally expected around 250 pages, which turned out to be more in the end. I think more than that would've been very hard, since there's only ever so much you can write about without watering down the content and actually losing focus. I could've added more about the history of grids, polyfills, design aspects, etc., but then it would've been less of a tutorial book for the technology itself. Less than 250 would mean that I woujld have had to condense the content, losing the opportunity to explain details.
With the index, foreword, glossary and additional content about related books, the final product has 330 pages total, however, the 260+ pages of actual content felt like a very sensible choice.
When creating the outline, I had to give estimations about how many pages each chapter would roughly fill and we double-checked that the sum was roughly 250. Especially after the tech review, I had to expand the explanations on some aspects, which resulted in some extra pages, totalling at around 263 in the end.
Does that answer your question?
Yes thanks. Just two more questions please 😊
You mentioned not using words like above and below. How did you get around that?
Was the page target for wall-to-wall text, or did it account for layout, paragraph spacing, and diagrams too?
Sorry for bombarding you with questions; I'd just like to learn more about the process.
Don't be sorry, wanting to learn is never a bad thing and I love answering all your questions! 😀
"Following" and "previous" are good substitutes. So, instead of talking about the "above figure", I would write "the previous figure", or mention the figure number directly, i.e. "As shown in figure 3.14". My own mind is usually very focussed on locality when it comes to ordering information, so it took me a bit to adjust to that, but once I got used to this technique, it worked fine. I recently read a papeback book that did not follow that approach and I immediately noticed why using "above" and "below" doesn't work. If the formatting is just slightly different in the final product than it is in the draft, you might end up having "the above figure" as the first line of a page on the left (assuming LTR writing), meaning there is no "above" or "left" at all. "Previous", on the other hand, circumvents that.
While writing, I used MS Word only, so I added section titles, paragraph spacings, figures, code examples etc. in there directly. The page target included these, so what counted was the actual page count of the Word documents. Figures also transport information, although in a different format, so counting them is sensible. Code examples, especially with comments, allow the reader to understand what is going on by being able to look at actual examples of things being used, which is yet another way of conveying information. I think the publisher used page targets to get a sense of how large the end product will be. A word count of, say 10k words (roughly 20 pages, according to A Popular Search Engine™) may produce a wildly different page count if there are a lot of figures vs when there are no figures at all. A page count keeps things manageable.
I hope this answered your questions, is there anything else you want to know? ☺️
Thanks for the detailed info. Just one more thing please: it sounds like it was quite hectic - especially towards the end. How did you find time for everything, especially with a full-time job? Did you have to set aside strict time blocks for writing?
You're very welcome!
You're right, it was quite hectic at times and sometimes I struggled to meet the deadlines. We didn't rush it, though, and usually the project manager and editor were very understanding if I had good reasons for not meeting a deadline, such as falling ill (I caught a nasty flu halfway through), family business or holidays.
I tried to stick to a rhythm, spending one to two hours per day writing. I would use train rides and other idle time to work on the project, too. I tried getting up really early for a few weeks, work on the book before breakfast and then work on my job. That worked surprisingly well, especially since I did not have to write for two hours after already working for eight.
Sometimes I had to spend the weekend, though, working for some four to eight hours per day, but I think that was a necessary sacrifice that I was more than willing to make. Handing in a large chapter I was happy with, gave me a feeling of achievement, and that was usually enough to compensate for not being able to play video games that day lol. Luckily my partner was very supportive and had my back in crunch times. Don't underestimate the support you get from loved ones during such a project. Helping each other thrive can strengthen the bond so much.
Is there anything else you want to know? I'm happy to answer all your questions! 😊
I think that's about it (for now 😁).
Thanks again for the detailed answers, and best of luck!