[ZDP] ZDP Editor for NW [longish]

[Dody Gunawinata]

> It sounds to me that we have pretty well decided to publish Zbook in
> hardcopy. So, here are some of the things, in no particular order of
> importance, that have been going through my mind [remember I'm
> looking at this from the perspective of the writer(s) and volunteer(s),
> whoever they may be]:
> 

It's only one day after we know that a publisher is interested in ZBook.
So we haven't really thought about the scope. The original intention is
to publish a definitive book about ZBook. One of the basic rule is, it
must contains a lot of examples. The electronic form of ZBook allows us
to do that. We work on ZBook, with a hope that, after it finished,
somebody would consider to publish it, not before it. So this is
actually a pleasant surprise.

Printed form has limitation on how much material we can put on the book.
So scope is indeed important.

> One thing that has not been discussed on this list,
> and which I am curious about, is: has anyone scoped the printed book?
> I've
> seen Tom's chapter layout for the book. Is this _approximately_ what you
> want for the printed book? Knowing the approx. general scope might
> also permit others who are thinking of getting involved to get an
> idea of the time commitment needed.
> 

> >From a writer's perspective, before you start writing the book, you
> need to decide who your audience is going to be...this also affects
> who you want on your writing team.

The original audience is not really defined "officially", it's just
targeted to beginners . ZBook is already in the works, is not a plan.
There are already drafts produced, and writers that are currently
writing. Another thing, you can take a look at ZCL, which was designed
to split up the workloads among writers, so that we can make ZBook to
reality, faster. There wasn't any doubt that we would actually finish
ZBook, the question is when. We do struggle to find willing volunteers
to write for the book. You just have to check out the mailing list
archieve for the last three weeks to see what I mean. With this
publishing deal, we won't have to worry about that anymore. A bit ironic
actually, that we need this commercial publishing deal for something
that were originally intended as free contribution to the Zope
community.

> I think that as far as writers and editors are concerned, you have a
> fair bit of choice in how to arrange their work.
> As far as having section editors, I think this is doable
> _as long as_ there is a style guide for the book and
> writers and section editors *swear* <grin> to follow it, unless they
> have first checked with the main editor who you still need to pull
> the final product together.
> 
> I wonder what kind of supportive role, if any, NR sees itself play in
> the writing of this project?  What resources can they make available
> to us to make the writing/editing run reasonably smooth?
> 

I do wonder about this too. I hope Laurie monitor this mailing list.

Dody

> ... my thoughts so far.
> 
> Ute
> 
> Tom Deprez wrote:
> >
> > Ehm....
> >
> > Just thinking...
> >
> > Ute! Aren't you a very specialised person in editing?
> 
> --
> Ute Methner
> Grimsby ON Canada
> ute@idirect.com
> 
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