My Git Book Writing Blog

How Did I Get Started with Manning?

Around November 2013, I joined a mailing list for people seeking to be technical reviewers for Manning Publications. This was an opportunity to read some books that were still in development, and to provide feedback. The reviews editor sends out a list of books for review to this list, and we just raise our hands to volunteer.

In December 2013, I volunteered to review five chapters from the early manuscript of Git in Practice, by Mike McQuaid. The reviews editor, Ozren Harlovic, gave me access to that book, and provided a detailed questionnaire to organize the feedback. It’s a good process.

There was one question in that questionnaire that started it all for me: “What technology experts (perhaps lesser known) do you think would make good authors?” I wrote “Me!” Ozren noticed that (I didn’t think anybody would), and a few weeks later I was staring at a contract to write this book.

File this post under “be careful what you wish for!” Thank You everyone for reading.