Joshua Arvin Lat is the author of the Amazon SageMaker Cookbook, we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Joshua: The Packt team reached out about a year ago and asked me to write a book on machine learning. I took the challenge and spent the last 9-12 months working on the book. It was a fun experience.
Q: How long did it take you to write the book?
Joshua: About 9-12 months
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Joshua: I already had prior knowledge using Amazon SageMaker before writing the first few chapters of the book. However, as more capabilities and features were announced midway while I was writing the book (e.g., AWS re: Invent 2020), I had to spend some time researching and experimenting with the newer capabilities which I had to include in the book.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Joshua: Yes. I was not aware of the 700-page limit so I ended up writing about 900-1000 pages of content initially. With proper planning and a thorough assessment of each recipe and chapter of the book, we’ve removed about 250-300 pages of content to work with this constraint.
Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?
Joshua: “Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to endure a difficult one”
Q. How do you keep up to date on your tech?
Joshua: By working on deep-dive experiments and projects every once in a while. I also take certification exams to make sure that I am up-to-date on the latest technology and best practices.
Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?
Joshua: No (I’ve deactivated my personal website and blog years ago)
Q. Can you share any blogs, websites and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?
Joshua: Yes, https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/
Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Joshua: It is a fun and pleasant experience working with the Packt team. Working as a full-time CTO and writing a book at the same time is not easy and being able to hit the deadlines was sometimes a challenge. The Packt team has been very helpful in getting this book launched on time. I would definitely recommend Packt to aspiring authors.
You can find Joshua‘s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here
