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4 ways to cure yourself after writing a book

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By Topics | Learn SAS

Writing a book (especially for SAS Press) is an incredible experience. If you are playing with the thought of doing so, I highly recommend that you proceed with this idea. You’ll get a much better structured view of your favorite topic, learn a lot about yourself, and enter a very nice user and author community.

However, here are some suggestions that you may want to consider using to cure yourself--after you have finished writing a book.  

1. Celebrate a book burning ... No, don't get me wrong! Do not burn your book after it is finished! But burn the printouts that you collected over the many months when writing the book. You will see that getting rid of all the hard copy evidence of exhausting work is very pleasant for you. It is acceptable to have one or more beers during that exercise. See an example photo of a randomly selected author in Austria, Burgenland.

2. Be relaxed! Not only because you have finished the hard work. Also be relaxed when you find the first error in the final print version of the book. If you are lucky, it is only a small typo. Other examples could include wrong references to chapters, pages, and diagrams. Experience shows that it is usually not a questions WHETHER you find a mistake, rather a question of HOW LONG IT TAKES until you see the first one. Before you start thinking about the WHY (did the copyeditor oversee it? did the reviewers not mention it?), it is your book. The glory and the faults are with you. It's like the first scratch on a new car. As soon as you have one, the second does not hurt that much. This is a good time to start the "Changes and enhancements" document for the book and publish it on sascommunity.org.

3. Take some days off, drive around a nice place, and have a very good dinner. A famous Austrian ski jumper (Toni Innauer) once said "Always enjoy the success, it will give you the power for new tasks". And I think this is very true. Don't stumble into the next project without enjoying what you have achieved. To celebrate my 2nd book, for example, I took some days off after SAS Global Forum 2012 in Orlando and drove with my new book to the coasts of Florida and had an excellent dinner at a fantastic location in the Florida Keys. As you can see from the pictures, my book was very thankful and enjoyed the experience as well.

4. Be proud when the curtain opens and you are on stage! After you have finished your book, there will be occasions where you can present your book and its ideas to the user community. This can be a presentation at a user group or any other conference. You can run webinars, open a blog or discussion forum, run a workshop or write a paper on your book. In any case, enjoy these possibilities. Seeing and talking to people who are interested in your topic is the true reward of writing a book.

I hope these suggestions also help you feel better after writing your book. Have fun!

Gerhard Svolba is the author of Data Quality for Analytics Using SAS and Data Preparation for Analytics Using SAS. You can learn more about Gerhard as well as read a free chapter from each of his books by visiting his author page.

 

Tags data preparation for analytics using SAS Data Quality for Analytics Using SAS sas press sascommunity.org
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About Author

Gerhard Svolba

Principal Solutions Architect

Dr. Gerhard Svolba ist Analytic Solutions Architect und Data Scientist bei SAS Institute in Österreich. Er ist in eine Vielzahl von analytischen und Data Science Projekten quer über fachliche Domains wie Demand Forecasting, analytisches CRM, Risikomodellierung und Produktionsqualität involviert. Seine Projekterfahrung reicht von der fachlichen und technischen Konzeption über die Datenaufbereitung und die analytische Modellierung in unterschiedlichen Branchen. Er ist der Autor der SAS Press Bücher Data Preparation for Analytics Using SAS, Data Quality for Analytics Using SAS and “Applying Data Science: Business Case Studies Using SAS”. Als nebenberuflich Lehrender unterrichtet er Data Science Methoden an der Medizinischen Universität Wien, der Universität Wien und an Fachhochschulen. Sie finden auch Beitrage auf: Github und Twitter. ENGLISH: Dr. Gerhard Svolba ist Analytic Solutions Architect und Data Scientist bei SAS Institute in Österreich. Er ist in eine Vielzahl von analytischen und Data Science Projekten quer über fachliche Domains wie Demand Forecasting, analytisches CRM, Risikomodellierung und Produktionsqualität involviert. Seine Projekterfahrung reicht von der fachlichen und technischen Konzeption über die Datenaufbereitung und die analytische Modellierung in unterschiedlichen Branchen. Er ist der Autor der SAS Press Bücher Data Preparation for Analytics Using SAS®, Data Quality for Analytics Using SAS® and “Applying Data Science: Business Case Studies Using SAS”. Als nebenberuflich Lehrender unterrichtet er Data Science Methoden an der Medizinischen Universität Wien, der Universität Wien und an Fachhochschulen. Sie finden auch Beitrage auf: Github und Twitter.

14 Comments

  2. Angela Hall on

    This is an awesome post Gerhard! So nice to see your book celebrating along with you. Tricia and I found that our book was very appreciative of all the champagne that we poured on it :)

  3. Michael on

    I'm looking forward to keeping the very first draft (along with the associated critical comments) to see how far I've come through the process.

    • Gerhard Svolba on

      My electronic copies did not get burnt. I still have my daily snapshot of the book file, which is quite funny to take a look at, after you have finished the book

  4. Michael A. Raithel on

    Gerhard,

    Congratulations on the completion and publication of your book!

    I enjoyed your advice on post-publishing, and intend to follow a few of your examples.

    Best of luck for the sales of your new book!

    ----MMMMIIIIKKKKEEEE
    (aka Michael A. Raithel)

  5. Pingback: Top blog comments last week - SAS Voices

  7. Susan Slaughter on

    Gerhard, Excellent timing. I am looking forward to following your suggestions in the near future...well, at least suggestions 1, 3 and 4. Number 1 is particularly apt since I never managed to clean up my desk after finishing my last book. I feel inspired by your example. Cheers!

  8. Mary Beth Steinbach on

    Love this! Looking forward to working with you on your next book, Gerhard.

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