I have worked in computer book publishing for nearly a decade: first for Wrox, and recently for Packt Publishing.

As an acquisition editor, it’s my job to help authors develop compelling book ideas, plan the book’s content and approach, and work with them on the first few chapters. If you are interested in writing a computer book for Packt, please contact me on davidb@packtpub.com.

This blog exists for anybody interested in writing computer books, tutorial ebooks, or any other kind of technical writing. Even if you write for a competing publisher, I hope you’ll find this blog useful. I am especially interested in books that do not feel like dry technical manuals, but are engaging and fun to read. Happily, these books are usually more fun to write too.

In 2008 I published 22 new books. Topic areas included Moodle, ExtJS, Drupal, Joomla!, WordPress, ASP.NET, Facebook, CakePHP and Alfresco. I am especially interested in Open Source web technologies and online web applications, and am looking for book ideas for 2009 and beyond.

I am series editor for Packt “Beginner’s Guides”. These are friendly, informal, and action-driven tutorials. Their goal is “learn by doing”. You could think of them as Dummies Guides for smart people, or Head First guides without the cartoons.

I don’t host comments on this blog yet. I encourage you to send feedback by email or Twitter.

Thanks,

David Barnes