Writing a book in 2017

Description

The usual way of writing a technical book is to open the Word or LibreOffice application, to write some content, to make a backup, to send it by email to the publisher and to deal with the feedbacks. And repeat.

However in 2017 we can do differently by using open formats like Asciidoc, by using version control to propagate changes, by using collaborative platforms like GitHub or GitLab to collate feedbacks in any form as well as transforming text and code into readable and interactive artefacts.

It gives us a unique opportunity to approach the whole process of writing in term of "content experience", of "toolchain" and of "distribution".

In the end, a "book" becomes a "writing format" as we can reuse the same pattern to manage any kind of "content" — articles, publications, essays, documentation — that we can transform in physical books, e-books, interactive web pages etc.

  • Conference: Write the Docs EU
  • Year: 2017

About the speaker

Thomas Parisot