Interview: Bethany Hiitola, Author of Getting started with Audacity 1.3

Bethany Hiitloa is the author of Getting started with Audacity 1.3 which Uses a task based, step-by-step approach to guide newcomers into the world of audio editing.

Bethany is a working writer. By working, we mean she works as a career woman (technical and marketing writer), wife, mother of two, household manager, and caretaker to pets. Armed with a Bachelor of Science degree in scientific and technical communications she's trained to write technical manuals. In fact, she's written countless user manuals for networking and consumer products, essays, short stories, academic papers, press releases, and feature articles. Her “writing time” is sometime after midnight most days of the week. More details about her can be read at bethanyhiitola.com.

Packt: How did you find the overall experience of writing your book for Packt?
Bethany: Different than what I expected. I've worked for over 10 years as a technical writer for various corporations and producing manuals has always been a part of my job. Writing for Packt gave me a bit more freedom than a corporate environment would allow—which overall is a great thing, but it also meant that I could break rules in a way I might not have done before (use more casual language, write in a tone or style of my own), which can be a bit daunting. However the team I worked with was great. They let me write the book the way I wanted to, but also provided guidance when required.

Packt: During the writing process, did you come across any issues/ difficulties that affected your writing and how did you overcome these?
Bethany: Overall, as someone who also has a “day job” and has an active family, my biggest obstacle was finding time to do everything that needed to be done. Writing any book is hard work. You spend many hours writing, as well as working on the screen captures and illustrations needed to make the book complete. For me, the time writing was one part and the other half was making sure those graphics were ready so, it was important that I allotted time for both. I'd suggest setting up a regular writing routine and always allowing for a little extra time for those chapters that take a bit longer than expected (re-reading your work before submitting a draft is also always a good idea).

I'm a practical type of woman. I like to learn a software for the purpose of using it for something. Not just to list features and menu items. While I had used Audacity before, there were areas that I needed to grow my skill set. As a technical writer by career, you are asked to do this all the time, but with my name on the cover, I knew I'd be in for a bit of a steep learning curve to get to know all areas of the software in great detail so I could write about all the methods and finessing of audio editing.

Packt: Whilst writing your book, did you find that it overshadowed personal life in any way? How did you deal with this?
Bethany: Again, it is just taking the time to write the book properly. As much as I'd love to say that my years of writing in the “day job” helped (it did, at least I knew I could actually write the book through to completion)--it still all comes down to actually sitting down in front of the computer and start writing. To do this, I spent many weekends and late nights writing. My wonderful husband took time away from his marathon training to take care of the kids for me, I spent hours at my local coffee shop (thanks Stephanie for staying open late for me!), and pried myself away from more fun things like reading and television for a while. It was all worth it in the end (I have my name on a book), and I'll be doing it again for another book here at Packt soon!

Packt: Was there anything interesting that happened during the writing of the book?
Bethany: Yes, quite a few. I helped support a major product launch for the company I work for—developing training, multimedia based retail tools and post-sale consumer tutorials, my husband ran his first half marathon in August and then his first full marathon in Chicago in October. I celebrated a birthday (and so did both my children).

And if you count the myriad of family activities—a soccer season, my son's first year in school, various trips home to visit my family, the holiday season—well, it was busy. But any mom's life in a family is!

Packt: How did Packt’s Acquisition Editors help you - what kind of things did they help you with and how did they support you through the writing process?
Bethany: This is a fun story—I met my first Packt acquisition editor via Twitter. Well, I followed a great online marketeer and podcaster Jason Van Orden He'd posted that he didn't have the time to write a book he was being offered to write, I replied, and a few direct messages and an email introduction later, I was being asked to create an outline and start writing Getting started with Audacity 1.3. Sarah was awesome—encouraging, thoughtful, and really got me off to a great start. She was very open to answering every question I threw her way, and steered me to write a very helpful book. Then she introduced me to more of the Packt team to complete the book (and even start another project).

Packt: Our authors usually have full-time jobs whilst writing for us. Was this the case for you and how did you approach managing your time?
Bethany: Ah yes– that’s the tough part about writing. I just wrote whenever I could find the time between work, family, and life. That meant I ate my lunch while writing sometimes, gave up sleep, and even spent many Sunday nights (and early Monday mornings) in the corner of my local coffee shop or hovered over my little desk in the bedroom while my family slept. As a writer, you just find the time.

Packt: What benefits did writing a book bring to your specialist area?
Bethany: It allowed me to stretch my wings and get back to the basics. I thought like a new user who wants to learn how to use a new tool and how could I make that the most pleasant experience possible. And knowing a few people that had tried to use Audacity previously with little luck, I tried to keep it practical and useful. My hope is that by the end of the book they'd consider themselves more than a beginner.

Packt: Do you have any tips for other authors, or tricks that you learnt whilst writing, that you'd like to share?
Bethany: For technical books you need to take the time. This includes time to learn the tools you are writing about, learn about how users might want to use the tools, and then make sure to take the time to write it well. And then of course, read and revise. Reviewers and editors will provide you with feedback and suggestions –this will make your work better. So take all the suggestions that you can and incorporate them.

Packt: Do you have any advice for other authors who may be interested in writing for Packt, but are still unsure?
Behthany: Find projects that really interest you. You'll be writing about this topic/tool/software for about 6 months or more. It has got to be something you are ready to commit the time and energy through to completion. Also, don't be afraid to make the book your own—the Packt editors are open to using conversational tone and humor throughout. Use this as your chance to make technical books just a bit more fun (if you don't have fun writing the book, who’s to say readers will have fun reading it?).

Packt: What projects, if any, are you working on at the moment?
Bethany: I have a new book project with Packt which I hope to finish this summer/fall. It is about Inkscape and how to use it in web design projects. I'm also an avid fiction writer. So between all craziness of life, I also hope to finish a novel by the end of the year.

Would you like to be an author yourself? Contact Packt's editorial team here.