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Interview with Jeppe Schaumburg Jensen

Jeppe Schaumburg Jensen is the author of The Missing Bootstrap 5 Guide, we got the chance to sit down and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.

Q: What are your specialist tech areas?

Jeppe: Frontend development and interaction design.

Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?

Jeppe: I was contacted by a Business Development Executive from Packt in early June 2021. They was planning this book and wanted me as the author due to my expertise in this field. I have previous experience with being a lecturer and an online course creator, and I love teaching and writing. So I thought an opportunity to become a published author and spread my knowledge even further was highly motivating.

Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?

Jeppe: I am already an expert in the topic of my book, and have been teaching it before, so I could actually start right away with the first chapters. But during the writing process I was regularly checking the official documentation and doing testing to be sure that everything was correct. However, for the last part of the book I had to do extensive research first, since I hadn’t been teaching this part of the topic before.

Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?

Jeppe: My biggest challenge was finding the time to actually write and code, since I have a full-time job and my family with my girlfriend and two kids that takes up most of the time. I also freelance as a developer and as a musician. I overcame these challenges by simply structuring my work, taking a lot of notes, and spending 1-2 hours at a time writing and coding. It also helped me that Packt was okay with this book being delayed for several months. If not, I couldn’t have made it.

Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?

Jeppe: Bootstrap is used on millions of websites today and the usage is increasing steadily. I believe that Bootstrap will continue to evolve and be an obvious and popular choice for developers for certain use cases.

Q: Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?

Jeppe: Other books on the market focus on the basics of Bootstrap 5, while this is focusing on more advanced topics related to Bootstrap 5, including powerful customization methods with Sass and CSS custom properties. This book is therefor also aimed at people who already have some experience using Bootstrap.

Q: What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away with from the book?

Jeppe: It’s possible to customize the look and feel of Bootstrap 5 in a fairly easy way, so your design will become unique and stand out from the crowd. Bootstrap 5 also contains other powerful features which it not related to visual design, that are useful to know about.

Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?

Jeppe: Browse the web for free resources to get started learning the basic stuff. Then find some online video-based courses that can teach you more and in a structured way. Remember to experiment with real code all along, as this is where you really learn and grow as a developer.

Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?

Jeppe: Unfortunately no. Even though I love writing and teaching, I have never really had the time and energy to start a proper blog. One day in the future I might do it.

Q. Can you share any blogs, websites and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?

Jeppe: smashingmagazine.com and css-tricks.com are my go-to websites for learning all about frontend development and keeping up with the trends.

Q. How would you describe your author’s journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?

Jeppe: It started in the summer of 2021. I have been receiving good help and support through all the months it has taken me to complete this book project. Especially in the last half of this book project I have had a close and good collaboration with various people from Packt. I would definitely recommend Packt to aspiring authors.

Q. Do you belong to any tech community groups?

Jeppe: No.

Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?

Jeppe: I have been a member of Smashing Magazine for several years and can highly recommend it. They cover all the trends within frontend development. That’s my main source of inspiration.

Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?

Jeppe: I have been using Evernote for notes related to this book. One note per chapter and then several other notes for other things. Besides that I made sure to organize my files into meaningful folders reflecting the structure of the book and its various parts and chapters. Then I simply wrote and coded whenever I had the time, mostly during nights when the kids were asleep.

Q. What is the one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?

Jeppe: If you’re stuck, just get started writing. Then the structure of your content will slowly emerge. You should also take lots of notes per chapter, so that you can return and improve things without forgetting what you had to do.

Q. Would you like to share your social handles? If so, please share.

Abdulazeez: You may share linkedin.com/in/jeppeschaumburg and instagram.com/jeppeschaumburg

You can find Jeppe’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here

The Missing Bootstrap 5 Guide is Available on Amazon.com