Books are a great way to transfer knowledge and experience to other users. Learn the best practices on how to write a Zabbix book yourself.
Contents
I. Publishing options (0:20)
1. Publishing on your own (0:57)
2. Publishing with a publisher (2:13)
II. Why writing a book? (4:33)
Publishing options
If you’re thinking about writing a book, you have two different options.
Publishing on your own
To publish a book on your own, you can use a service like Leanpub, or Fulton Books, etc. that can publish the book for you.
You’ll have:
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- to figure out everything by yourself, including font, topic, and format of the book, etc.;
- to promote the book on your own, which might be difficult, especially if you don’t settle on an electronic version;
- to decide if you might settle on an electronic version of your book;
- all the money earned for yourself less a small fee;
- more control over your own book, its price, etc.;
- to use a publishing service like Packt, O’Reilly, etc. to help you write.
Publisher
The publisher can guide you and help you with templates and questions, but will also impose limitations:
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- Books will be reviewed before publication, including spelling control, etc.;
- There is a strict layout to follow;
- Topics are agreed on, but some limits may be set, for instance, the number of pages, topics to cover, etc.
- You will only earn a fee from the book sales and maybe a bonus if you complete the book before the deadline.
- The book will be promoted by a publisher, which might boost sales.
NOTE. The publisher will guide you through the process, but the share of the author is too small, so you can use a ‘print on demand’ service, for instance, lulu, which is free to use and can provide a free ISBN number. You’ll be able to determine the price and pay the publishing service only a share of your profit, but you’ll need to market the book yourself.
Why writing a book?
Writing a book is:
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- a fun project to do and a useful experience;
- a great opportunity to get in touch with the community, and consider their input;
- a way to promote yourself or your business;
- a way to earn some extra cash
You can also write a publisher and act as a reviewer to familiarize yourself with the process. In addition, this will give you the chance of reading books before they come out, and for free in a legal way as well.
NOTE. You have to keep in mind though that writing a book will take all of our time, as you’ll also need to build a test environment, make screenshots, etc. As Zabbix releases a lot of updates, you may have to make the screenshots again, and change or add extra text, etc.
