Kind of sneakily, I mentioned before that I’m about to publish a book. It is called “Developer on the Stage”. This book will guide you through your very first talk as a developer. It will help you find the right idea, structure your thoughts and build a talk that is both instructive and built on your individual experiences. You will learn about the different types of conferences and talks as well as how to get a speaking slot at an event that supports your first talk. A lot of small but important habits for the situation on stage will help you be well-prepared. Additionally, you will learn what to do after your talk to get the most out of that experience.

At the book’s website, you can subscribe to the newsletter in which I will keep you up to date regarding everything about the project. This is the first newsletter I send:

Developer on the Stage Newsletter #1

Welcome to the first issue of the Developer on the Stage newsletter! Today, I will inform you about the progress of writing my first book. Below, you find three aspects that are important for publishing the book.

Have fun reading them and stay tuned for more!

Best regards,

Steven

The Book

The very good news is that I finished the first version of the book weeks ago. Some of the receivers of this mail reviewed a preliminary version and gave valuable feedback. Thank you very much, you helped me to write a better book! Those of you who also wanted to contribute will help me with an even better, second version. I invite you and those who have already read the book to give me feedback as soon as it is published.

The manuscript has been read by a professional editor who fixed all of the language-related mistakes I built in and enhanced the text. I’m very pleased with the result.

However, publishing a book is more than just writing a text. There are two projects I have to finish before the big release day: Design and Website.

Design

The design of the book consists of the front cover, the back and fonts for the text and headers. Working with a talented designer, I was able to choose two very nice fonts for the text and headers. We also found a cover that is 83,5% perfect. To get to 100%, my designer is creating variants for me to choose from.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the final cover!

Website

A while ago, I bought the domain http://developeronthestage.com/ to create a website holding all the information about the book as well as additional material that helps developers prepare, execute and post/process their talks. The design of the website is similar to the cover design of the book, which is why there can’t be a finished website right now. However, I found a web designer who already sketched out the general layout and will begin creating the page soon.