A reader of my HTML book, Omar, emailed today and pointed out an error in my “HTML, XHTML, and CSS: Your visual blueprint to designing effective web sites” book. On page 142, while I correctly describe the process for creating ID selectors in the main text, I have a note between steps 2 and 3 that says, “Note: Remember that ID names must begin with a period.” Obviously, this is wrong: ID names must begin with a pound sign.
These books really are very carefully edited. Not only do I read over the text an almost nauseating number of times, but its also read by the project editor, the copy editor, and the tech editor. And yet even with all of those eyes looking at it, mistakes still slip though.
I’ve written to Wiley and asked that an errata section by added to the book’s official web site. It’s not that I necessarily expect more errors, but the reality is that they probably exist, and hey, even if there is but this one, it’s still worth noting on the site.
So many thanks to Omar for bringing my attention to the error.
An astute reader, Mike, emailed me this morning about getting the sample files for HTML, XHTML, and CSS: Your visual blueprint™ for designing effective Web pages. He said that he was trying to go to the web site mentioned in the book, but that it didn’t work.
Sure enough, the publisher made a boo-boo. On page xiii in the introduction section, there’s a reference to www.html2008vb as the site for the book. Well, that address can’t possibly be right – it’s not even complete! Unfortunately, unless the very unlikely scenario occurs where the book was to be reprinted, there’s nothing that can be done to correct the error.
The good news, though, is that the back cover has another reference to the site, and this one is correct: http://www.wiley.com/go/html2008vb. So please ignore the incorrect address inside the book and use the one on the back cover instead.
A just finished the writing portion of Book #3. At 640 pages, it’s actually longer than the first two books combined. To be honest, I’m surprised I’ve been able to keep up with the writing, since my deadlines were spaced out at almost the same rate as for the first two books, despite there being over twice as much stuff to write. I can definitely feel it, though: it seems like it has taken a lot longer to write this one.
Unfortunately, I’m not done done yet. This week, I have the really grueling part of the process to do: the screen shots. That’s the big thing everyone asks when they see these books, and so here’s the answer: yes, I really do have to do all of the screenshots myself. Since the format of the book calls for what works out to 2 screenshots per page, that means that I will have done well over 1200 for this one book. And I now have a week in which to do the final quarter of those – over 300. It is definitely the part of the process that I dread the most. The good news is that it takes a lot less concentration, so I can generally watch TV or be otherwise semi-distracted while I do the screenshots, whereas I need total concentration to do the writing.
My final deadline in Friday, so I have my work cut out for me this week. But I definitely plan to relax and, for the first time in 6 months, not think about this book over the weekend.
Of course, even then I won’t be completely done. I’ll still have the author review to do – that’s when I get the comments back from the editor and tech editor, and have to go back through the book and fix everything that needs fixing. But that’s not nearly as involved as the writing and screenshotting.
Starting next week, even before I get the first chapters back for the review, I am going to start thinking about what I want to do for book #4. I actually have two ideas already, so I need to weigh them in my mind, decide which seems more interesting, and then make the proposal to my editor.
But for tonight at least, I’m done.
My copies of my latest book arrived this week while I was in Florida. My wife didn’t even realize what it was, since I get random boxes of books from publishers all the time (one of the fringe benefits of running a user group.)
It’s pretty cool that they put my name on the cover this time. And to preemptively answer what is probably the most commonly asked question from the first book: yes, I really did have to do all of the screen shots myself.
This afternoon, I finished up the front matter for my book – the “How to use this book” section, my bio, and the acknowledgments (which is quite possibly the hardest part of the book to write.) So that means that as of about 2:45 this afternoon, my part in HTML, XHTML and CSS: Your visual blueprint™ to creating effective web sites is done. Now, I just wait until the book with my copies shows up on my doorstep, which according to Amazon should be on or about June 3 (they were exactly correct on the date of the first one, so I see no reason why they won’t be this time.)
I have already begun negotiations with the publisher for book #3, although this one is going to be top secret, so I won’t be able to even give a hint as to what the subject matter is until it is published.
