Maxwell Flitton is the author of Rust Web Programming, we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: What is/are your specialist tech area(s)?
Maxwell: Rust, python, machine learning, microservices
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Maxwell: I realized that there was a gap in the market for Rust and web development so I contacted them about it after coding web servers in Rust.
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Maxwell: I had built Rust servers before writing the book, I had also read a few Rust textbooks back to back.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Maxwell: Time available was hard as I was working whilst writing the book, however, I was excited so I stayed up late most nights and had great support from the Packt team.
Q. Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
Maxwell: There isn’t really anything out there on how to build end to end web servers in Rust and how to deploy them. It is written for web developers who have coded in other languages, giving them enough of an introduction to code web apps in Rust. It also doesn’t lean too much on advanced Rust concepts enabling developers who are new to Rust to build web apps.
Q. What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away from the book with?
Maxwell: Readers can learn how to build web apps in Rust and that Rust is productive, and easy to build web apps in.
Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?
Maxwell: Read textbooks back to back. I’m not just saying this because I’m an author of a book. Long before I was one, I read books back to back, and this has resulted the fastest knowledge gains in my career. After writing a book this makes sense. Editors help the author with the flow of information from chapter to chapter. Reading a book back to back gives you the knowledge in the way it was designed by multiple professionals assigned to the book, and has the quality control that many online tutorials do not have.
Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?
Maxwell: Yes, check www.maxwellflitton.com.
Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?
Maxwell: I use feedly to search the web for updates on topics I like to keep up to date with.
Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?
Maxwell: I used a Kanban board and carved out time every night in order to keep the momentum up.
Q. What is that one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
Maxwell: Enabling deep work as Cal Newport suggests. You need to set aside some time with no distractions or internet tabs open
You can find Maxwell’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here
