Interview: J. Ayen Green, Author of Drupal 6 Content Administration

J. Ayen Green is the author of the recently released Drupal 6 Content Administration which helps readers maintain, add to, and edit content of their Drupal site with ease.

Jeff is a software and web site developer, writer, and poet. He and his wife, Sofía-Aileen, make their home in New York City. His blog can be found at http://www.ayendesigns.com/blog/JAG

Packt: How did you find the overall experience of writing your book for Packt?
Ayen: Very comfortable. Packt stayed out of the way during the writing process, but was there when needed.

Packt: During the writing process, did you come across any issues/ difficulties that affected your writing and how did you overcome these?
Ayen: Everyone has the occasional writer’s block. With a technical book, I usually handle it by taking a step back from the page, considering what I’m attempting to convey to the reader, and then looking at the page like a reader would. What needs to come next usually becomes evident. The other thing that occasionally gets in the way is the technology. Sometimes things just don’t work as they’re supposed to. In those cases, you either need to find a solution, a workaround, or a new plan.

Packt: Whilst writing your book, did you find that it overshadowed personal life in any way? How did you deal with this?
Ayen:I was fortunate that my wife was in a continuing education degree program while I was writing, and because she was either in class or studying, my schedule was no worse than hers. I do recommend making every attempt to stay on schedule. Being one or two pages short at the end of the day can quickly become a stressful situation.

When deciding on your schedule, use schedule weekdays for writing, leave an empty day between chapters, and look at the social calendar so that you don’t forget vacation, birthdays, weddings, whatever. You’ll probably end up using the weekends and empty day between chapters for writing too, but at least they will be available for that, and not already booked for
more writing.

Packt: Was there anything interesting that happened during the writing of the book?
Ayen: The book paralleled the development of a live web site. The requirements of the site owner changed somewhat, in a way that was at conflict with the book outline, so I ended up developing two sites.

Packt: How did our Acquisition Editors help you - what kind of things did they help you with and how did they support you throughout the writing process?
Ayen: The acquisition editors know what titles will sell; what people are looking for on the shelves. I had a period of back and forth in e-mail that was the melding of my ideas and the marketing realities. The process was fun and very valuable. The thing to keep in mind during it is that there will be many, many questions that might, at first, seem like your knowledge or ideas are being put in question. The purpose is actually for the acquisition editor to understand fully where you are coming from and to leave as little as possible to assumption.

During the writing, there will be times when you decide the natural course of the chapter might be better going in a slightly different direction than originally planned, or there might be issues in revision decisions. The acquisition editor is a great resource for this, or sometimes just a good first stop.

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?
Ayen: Yes, I’m a software and web site architect, and was working full-time during the writing of the book. My typical day was 8-10 hours of work, and 4-6 hours of “writing.” I use quotation marks, because with a technical title, there is actually a lot of effort beyond the generation of words that takes place, such as screen shots and the actual
coding.

Packt: What benefits did writing a book bring to your speciality area?
Ayen: Two things typically come from writing this type of book: some further education on the topic, because there will be obstacles to overcome and explanations needed on topics you may not have drilled down into before, and the credibility that comes with having produced a book on a topic from which you earn a living.

Packt: Do you have any tips for other authors, or tricks that you learnt whilst writing, that you'd like to share?
Ayen: