How, did this happen?  In this particular case it is clearly the recommendation of Coding Horror’s Jeff Atwood.  His single post about the book sent it flying off Amazon.com’s virtual shelves, and started a conversation that included over 100 comments on Jeff’s blog and created a viral effect as several other blogs picked up on the story.

The lesson here for authors is not only do you need positive reviews of your books, but certain reviews can be  more effective than others.  You need a targeted approach to get your book not just in front of many people, but also the right people.

Think about who might have the biggest impact on your book.  The answer is not Oprah Winfrey – let’s keep it realistic.  Who is a trusted adviser, or connector within the community of your readership?  We use tools like the Author Questionnaire to help us answer these questions.  If your publisher is not using a similar tool, create your own and work with the marketing an PR departments on a targeted approach to get your work in front of the right people.

UPDATE: Looks like Charles Petzold is discussing this on his blog as well.

The cover is not final, and I welcome your feedback. The book is nearing completion, and is on track for publication in May 2008. There is no real product information on Amazon.com yet, so here’s a blurb describing the book:

Anyone who has explored the history, technology, or theory of computers has likely encountered the concept of the Turing Machine. The Turing Machine is an imaginary — not even quite hypothetical — computer invented in 1936 by English mathematician Alan Turing (1912 – 1954) to help solve a question in mathematical logic. As a byproduct, Turing also founded the field of computability theory — the study of the abilities and limitations of digital computers.

Although the concept of the Turing Machine is well known, Turing’s original 1936 paper is only rarely read. This neglect may have something to do with the paper’s title — “On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem” — and perhaps the paper’s extensive use of a scary German gothic font. That’s too bad, because the paper is not only a fascinating read but a milestone in the history of computing and 20^th century intellectual thought in general.

This book presents Turing’s original 36-page paper and a follow-up 3-page correction with background chapters and extensive annotations. Mathematical papers like Turing’s are often terse and cryptic. Petzold has elaborated on many of Turing’s statements, clarified his discussions, and provided numerous examples.

Interwoven into the narrative are the highlights of Turing’s own life: his secret work in cryptanalysis during World War II, his involvement in seminal computer projects, his speculations about artificial intelligence, his arrest and prosecution for the crime of “gross indecency,” and his early death by apparent suicide at the age of 41.

]]> http://ckwebb.com/publishing/books-and-writing/working-with-charles-petzold/feed/ 1 http://ckwebb.com/publishing/books-and-writing/charles-petzolds-light-summer-reading/ http://ckwebb.com/publishing/books-and-writing/charles-petzolds-light-summer-reading/#comments Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:50:13 +0000 Chris http://www.ckwebb.com/books/charles-petzolds-light-summer-reading/ When Windows programming legend Charles Petzold told me last week that he was going on vacation, I assumed he was off on a summer trip – perhaps the beach, or a nice resort.  “No, I’m taking some time off to read,” he replied.

I assumed it was a much needed break from writing to take in a few of the recently published bestsellers, or maybe to do some research for an upcoming book project.  I was wrong.

Mr. Petzold is taking a week off to consume the more than 1,500 pages that is Clarissa – one of the longest novels in the English language which was originally published in 7 volumes between 1747 and 1748.

I am going to read Clarissa in seven consecutive days. I will begin on the morning of Sunday, July 15, 2007 and (if all goes well) finish sometime in the late afternoon or early evening of Saturday, July 21.

That’s 11-12 hours per day!

Clarissa has no chapters. It is an epistolary novel—a novel composed entirely of letters (epistles)—and there are over 500 of them written during one calendar year. The first letter (to the title character from her best friend, Anna Howe) begins:

I am extremely concerned, my dearest friend, for the disturbances that have happened in your family. I know how it must hurt you to become the subject of the public talk; and yet upon an occasion so generally known it is impossible but that whatever relates to a young lady, whose distinguished merits have made her the public care, should engage everybody’s attention. I long to have the particulars from yourself, and of the usage I am told you receive upon an accident you could not help and in which, as far as I can learn, the sufferer was the aggressor.

Good luck Charles.  You are a brave man.