Interview: Richard Carter, Author of Magento 1.3 Theme Design

Richard Carter is author of Magento 1.3 Theme Design which gives the reader a great head-start in creating themes for the Magento ecommerce platform.

He is creative director of Peacock Carter, a web design agency in the North East of England, and lives in the beautiful city of Durham.

He has also authored MediaWiki Skins Design for Packt.

His blog can be reached at: http://www.earlgreyandbattenburg.co.uk

Packt: How did you find the overall experience of writing your book for Packt?
Richard :Relaxing, frustrating and challenging! Having worked with Packt before, I’ve found them to be understanding about people with full time employment, so I knew I could be flexible with the schedule if needed.

Packt: During the writing process, did you come across any issues/ difficulties that affected your writing and how did you overcome these?
Richard:I found Magento had quite a steep learning curve , but once I was over the hump, the content flowed more naturally – it was just a matter of brute force, and, where something wasn’t working, trying every possible fix until the original objective worked. The aim of the Magento book is to help the reader avoid that hump!

Packt: Whilst writing your book, did you find that it overshadowed personal life in any way? How did you deal with this?
Richard: There were a few times that I worked multiple solid days in a row especially at weekends) to complete a chapter for a deadline, which meant I missed social events, but to have worked any less on the book would have resulted in poor quality chapters, which I wouldn’t have been able to live with. I find myself fairly restless without anything to do to fill my time with, so it didn’t bother me too much, and in the lulls between waiting for chapters to be reviewed, I found some free time to enjoy life a little.

Packt: Was there anything interesting that happened during the writing of the book?
Richard: I moved house yet again, and got a pet rabbit. And my Lego collection in the office has been added to.

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?
Richard: The acquisition editors were a great source of help for me, providing quick feedback and changing the direction of the writing to focus the content if it went off-course!

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?
Richard: The schedule became a little hectic at on e time due to a heavier workload than I expected, but Packt were very understanding, and we quickly got the book back on track.
When writing, I tend to block off a morning or afternoon in the office one day at the weekend to research each chapter, and then evenings during the week to write the content in to fuller prose.

Packt: What benefits did writing a book bring to your specialist area?
Richard: Magento brought a challenging twist to my previous experience of skinning (or theming) software. My previous book was on MediaWiki skins, and there was a lot more to get across for Magento –its layout, skins and templates are more separated than in most other software.

Packt: Do you have any tips for other authors, or tricks that you learnt whilst writing, that you'd like to share?
Richard: Make a list of the things you want to get across to your reader and keep it near the screen as you write – it’ll help keep you focused!

Packt: Do you have any advice for other authors who may be interested in writing for Packt, but are still unsure?
Richard: It’s a challenge, but if you have the expertise, I’d say it’s a worthwhile one.

Packt: What projects, if any, are you working on at the moment?
Richard: I’m lucky in that I get a wide variety of projects to work on at any one time. At the moment, amongst other things, I’m working on a baby massage identity and website, a website for an IT recruitment agency, a printing company and a financial services company, as well as a number of smaller internal projects for Peacock Carter. I split my time between talking to clients and designing/overseeing our projects, so there’s a good mix of tasks on a daily basis.

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