At the YAPC::NA 2012 Perl Books BOF, five of us came up with two interesting pieces of action to improve the ecosystem of Perl books and articles and writers:
- Set up a mailing list for writers, editors, contributors, and reviewers to discuss books and articles in process or under development
- Make and maintain a list of people interested in contributing to books and articles along with their expertises.
For example, I might sign up on a wiki page as an interesting expert in testing, such that someone writing an article or a book or training about testing in Perl might contact me about reviewing the work.
Curating the mailing list might be interesting in trying to avoid a rush of publishers begging for books (or to keep one company or another from trying to dominate the conversation—I'm aware that my interest in this could appear like a conflict of interest), but with caution it could work well.
What do you think? Would you participate in either or both?
++ Not sure to what level but I would participate.
I'd participate. I've been wondering how to break into writing books, but even as a reviewer or writing small stuff, I'd love to help.
Likewise.
I don't think I have the time or energy to write a complete book but I would be willing to do technical reviews of them.
I'd be available for editing, as in "This part is not clear enough for me to follow, here are the terms or concepts I'm tripping over, what would you think about including or elaborating on them, here is suggested language:" (rather than being a subject matter expert).
Yes, would love to. Reviewers would be handy, and happy to help review others books/docs.