RE: Typical Book Deal?

[Mandy Wells <mwells -at- valadeo -dot- com>]

> Folks,
> 
> A friend has asked me for advice on a book deal.
> 
> He's a fairly accomplished programmer who's been approached by a
> publisher about writing a programming book.  He came to me for advice
> about what kind of deal is typical, what percentage he should ask for,
> etc.
> 
> I'm out of touch with writing for third party publication.  Anybody
> have any advice on this?  Or URLs on the topic?  Pointers to a good
> agent?
> 
> Steven J. Owens
> puff -at- guild -dot- net

You might want to recommend he read the following:
http://philip.greenspun.com/wtr/dead-trees/story.html

which starts out:

	"For a desperate disease a desperate cure." 
	-- Michael de Montaigne 

	This document exists to: 
	* explain how I ended up writing a dead trees computer book 
	* convey what it is like to work with a publisher on a project like
this 
	* expound my theories on why computer books are so bad 
	* show off my great new theory on why celebrities are often so
miserable 

OK, maybe it doesn't help your friend so much, but it is an interesting
read...

Cheers,
Mandy

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