The Overfactored Foreword

Don Box's Spoutlet

Syndication

Chris Sells has decided to reveal the technique I used last year to write the foreword for both his and ChrisAn's books.

If you have both books, read the forewords I wrote.

Note that there is significant reuse between the two forewords (they'd be identical had it not been for an overaggressive editor at AW who added an extra surname).

As is the case with code, it took way more work to craft a general solution to the “foreword for a WPF book written by a guy named 'Chris'” problem than it would have been to simply write two one-off solutions.

And as is often the case with this kind of factoring, the likelihood that I'll be able to reuse it a third time is extremely low.

However, if you are an author of a WPF book and your name is Chris, feel free to send me your manuscript and I'll consider it.

 


Posted Jan 27 2008, 05:31 PM by don-box

Comments

Dave Fifty wrote re: The Overfactored Foreword
on 01-28-2008 4:13 AM
Wow, guess its kind of funny but you are someone whose recommendation would've carried weight with me before reading this. Now I'll just figured its some guy's book to which you contributed a cut and paste foreward and an "attaboy".
Ben wrote re: The Overfactored Foreword
on 01-28-2008 8:39 AM
Hilarious. You thought you were writing a foreword and you actually wrote a business model.
Rob Eisenberg wrote re: The Overfactored Foreword
on 01-31-2008 5:43 AM
It's funny that you should mention it...
I'm writing a WPF book for Sams and my co-author's name is Christopher...

http://www.amazon.com/Sams-Teach-Yourself-WPF-Hours/dp/0672329859/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201790024&sr=8-21
Christopher Bennage wrote re: The Overfactored Foreword
on 01-31-2008 5:45 AM
Ha! I'm an author of a WPF named Chris. Let me get in on the action! Though I have a co-author not named Chris.
http://www.amazon.com/Sams-Teach-Yourself-WPF-Hours/dp/0672329859
Christopher Bennage wrote re: The Overfactored Foreword
on 01-31-2008 5:46 AM
and apparently we post comments at the exact same time! Sorry about that.
Don Box wrote re: The Overfactored Foreword
on 02-01-2008 8:38 PM
Dave Fifty,

I was a reviewer on both manuscripts and contributed emotional and editorial support to both projects.

Honestly, Chris Sells and Anderson are very dear friends and all three of us plotted on how do make this happen.

As I said earlier, it would have been WAY easier to write two forwards. It really, really, really took more effort to write a single one that was very specific yet matched both books/authors.

Sorry you feel offended or short-changed.

DB

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