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→Fame, Fortune, and Technical Writing by:Dru Lavigne
Dru Lavigne talked about making technical writing a career. She pointed out that this is a great time to become a technical writer, as there is 0 barriers to entry. Nowadays you can publish yourself on the web easily, and most often for free. After all, there is always room for more documentation. Dru stated that if you are good, you will get noticed, and you will get paid. But in order to get notices, you have to write and do so daily. When people search for you using a search engine, they should be able to find '''good''' examples of your work as well as your followers. Also, you should get involved and collaborate with the community. This includes editors, proof readers, and editors.
Dru Lavigne broke down her talk into Recognition, Inspiration, Publishing, and Earning Money.Here is what she had to say:
''Recognition''
''Inspiration''
Write about whatever interests you. There are many things that Open Source projects need like; documentation team members and leaders, man pages, tutorial, and guides for newcomers. You can also write articles and news in mainstream publications, write papers, brochures, and critique artwork or web content. Sometimes you have to change-it-up to get creativity flowing.
''Publishing''
So you want to get published? Publishers want to see that you have a big following, an audience. They also want to know that your expertise is currently 'hot' or popular. Most importantly, they want a well thought out proposal. Write your proposal as if you were gonna start writing your book tomorrow.
Some interesting stuff:
<ul>
<li>for technical books 10,000 copies sold makes it a "best seller"</li>
<li>taking 3 months(50 hrs/week) to write a book is considered fast</li>
<li>a very small # of books get promoted by mainstream publishers and small publishers have less resources for promotion</li>
</ul>