Postcards From My Life

Dear Reader,

I have released my latest book, Culture of Respect. This book is for Team Leads, Managers, Directors of IT, and anyone charged with building and managing a team of developers. It is specifically not for developers. If you are a developer and not looking to move into management any time soon, please don’t buy this book.

The largest part of the book focuses on how to find developers to hire. It also covers how to hire developers. (hint, it doesn’t really require a coding test) Finally it talks about building a team.

This book is built from 3 sources.

• My personal experience managing developers
• Discussions I’ve had over the years with other managers
• Discussions I’ve had with developers about their managers

In my career I’ve been a developer, a managers, and a director. This book was written primarily for my younger self. It is the advice I wish I had had when I was starting down the management road.

If you are a manager, I urge you to take a look at it.  If you are a developer, it is not an insulting book, it is safe to give as a gift to your favorite manager.

Until next time,
I <3 |<
=C=

Dear Reader,

I know a lot of PHP developers writing books. One thing I have noticed about the authors of the books I have looked at – and not just about books I have written – is that many of us are better programmers than writers. I am particularly horribly at spelling and grammar, as those who have read anything of mine will attest to. Even if you are well versed in the English language, you still need someone to go behind you and double check you work, you will miss things. My advice to every author and every programmer thinking about becoming an author, hire an great editor.

It always amuses me when I talk to potential authors and they think that “writing a book is free and easy”. No, writing things that are free and easy is usually called blogging. If you are creating a book, especially if you are expecting others to pay you for it, you have to invest in a few things. None of them are more important in my eyes than an editor.

I’ve used several editors over the years and have come to settle on one, Carole King. Carole is editing my current work-in-progress and is doing a great job. I can’t recommend her highly enough. She is professional, and affordable. Most importantly though, she is thorough, that’s what you really want in an editor. Carole won’t pretend to be your friend. She is a very a nice person, but if you like your editor, they probably aren’t doing their job well enough. A good editor will drive you up the wall, and Carole is a good editor. Since Carole is not a programmer, she won’t critique your work technically. She concentrates on one thing, making sure your work is grammatically sound.

Do yourself a favor. Drop Carole an email today and see if she has the availability to help you with your current writing project. You won’t be sorry.

Until next time,
I <3 |<
=C=

p.s. I am not being compensated by Carole in any way for this blog post. This is from the heart.

I’m a lucky man. I get to talk with a lot of developers and web development shops. No matter where in the world I am, one constant refrain I hear is, “Yep, we are done with the site, waiting on the client now to write the content.” OK, so most of my European friends don’t say, “Yep,” but you get the idea. Consistently, content is the last part of the equation in a website and one of the speed bumps many developers hit in deploying a website on time.

Read the entire post, Are Your Painters Standing around While You Pick Out Colors? over at meryl.net

If you are looking about to hire a developer to build you a website and are looking for help and guidance, read my new book on the subject, “Avoiding a Goat Rodeo: How to get the website you want“. Investing $10 in the book could save you hundreds on your project.

Dear Reader,

I need help with my book. I am looking for 3-5 small business owners who are considering having a website designed for their company. My book helps small business owners understand the process and get the most for their money by not wasting it.

If you are a small business owner and want to participate, please email me at cal [at] calevans [dot] com. For your time, you will received one of a very limited run of printed copies of the book, signed by me expressing my thanks to you personally.

Most of the people that read this blog (outside of my family…and I’m not entirely sure they read it) are technically oriented. THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR YOU. However, you probably know someone who could help me. If you do, please put them in touch with me.

Thank you for any help you can give me on this exciting project.

Until next time,
I <3 |<
=C=

Dear Reader,

I met Kevlin Henny back in 2007 at the PHPUK Conference in London. (For a year or so I called him Kevin Hennly until I finally got it right) One day out of the blue, Kevlin droped me an email and invites me to participate in a new project he’s working on for O’Reilly, a collaborative book called “97 Things Every Programmer Should Know“. Not being one who is ever short of advice and opinions to give, I gladly submitted two entries that eventually made their way through the editing process and into the final book.
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