Aaron Brazell who heads up Technosailor.com and who used to work for B5 Media announced on July 3rd that he has secured a book deal with Wiley Publishing to write a 700 page WordPress Bible. Aaron had been working on the deal since April but only recently received the go ahead to write the book.
Today, I approach The WordPress Bible with some fear and trepidation. Currently, the book is marked at around a cool 700 pages. And oh yes, it has to be done in October. Yikes!
What this effectively means is that for the next four months, I will be spending monumental amounts of time doing nothing but writing. I’m considering disappearing to the mountains once a month for 3-4 days just to write.
In conversation with Aaron regarding the book, when it is published it will have current information for WordPress 2.8 with editing for WordPress 2.9. The goal is to get the book done and when it is published to the public, it will be for whatever version is current at that time. Also, Aaron says that the book will contain the nuts and bolts of WordPress which generally stays the same from version to version meaning the book will be a valuable resource for some time to come.
WordPress For Dummies authored by Lisa Sabin-Wilson is also published by Wiley so I asked Aaron if The WordPress Bible will pick up where the Dummies book left off or if it’s for a different audience.
Different audience. Same publisher. The Dummies books are supposed to provide a 101 level overview of a topic, software product, etc. The Bible series is supposed to be exhaustive and for all levels of skill. The WordPress Bible, like others in the Bible series will be more in depth and provide tutorials for beginners and advance technical knowledge for advanced users. It will be a beneficial addition for any WordPress user whether a blogger, developer or themer and it should provide the info to just get started or to get into new areas of development.
I dunno about you but I hope I can snare a copy of The WordPress Bible, especially if I can get it with Aaron’s autograph! Will you be getting a copy once it’s released?
Might buy a copy if there is some great stuff in there but its a tough call with WordPress books. I think the WordPress plugin development book that came out recently was a good, long lasting book (ie won’t be obsolete the next time WP releases a new version with new interface). If WordPress Bible can pull that off it would be worth a buy.
Personally I’d love one of these publishers to sell a PDF version that you get say 6-12 months free revisions for so that you get the edits for whatever new WP versions come out in that time. For PDF distribution I would even say they could edit and release a new revision within 30 days of a new WP release.