Writing books

At KV Sites, we pride ourselves on knowing our tools very well. To that end, the owner, Kae, has written two books on web technology (jQuery 1.3 with PHP and CMS Design with jQuery and PHP), and has just signed off on the chapter list for a new book based on less.js, which is a technology which allows web developers to work with design in a more organised way.

Writing books has two very interesting side-effects:

1. Business opportunities. Kae has had new business partnerships open up directly because of the books he wrote. For example, one client in Denmark was looking to build a CMS, bought his books, then emailed to ask a number of questions. That grew into a partnership where both KV Sites and the client are now working together on a large project (to be announced in a few months).
2. Education! Even if you think you know your subject, writing a book will teach you things that had not occurred to you. While writing jQuery 1.3 with PHP, Kae had to take his thoughts on client-server interaction and clarify them, so that they could be explained very clearly to readers. He ended up clarifying some points so much that better solutions occured to him, making his work easier and more efficient.

We are looking forward to the new book, to see what new things less.js will let us give to our clients.

If you are a business owner, and know your field very well, writing a book as a brilliant way to augment your skillset. Not only will it make you appear more authoritive in your field, but you will be more authoritive in your field.

It only takes a few pages a day to write a book. For example, the one that Kae is working on will be about 300 pages, and at 4 pages a day, it will be finished in only 3 months.

As many people have pointed out before, the best way to learn something better is to teach it.