This page is my personal bibliography where I document where I've been published. I will try to keep this page up-to-date with books or magazine articles I've written or otherwise contributed to, as well as any interviews or other related activities.
Most of my writing outside of books is done on my Mastodon account.
How To Write A Tech Book - author - published July 2023.
Many technical professionals would like to write a book sharing their knowledge and experience, but most haven't. If you ask them why, it's not from lack of ideas or experience with technical subject matter. Instead, they just don't know how turn their idea into an actual published book. Even though there are some guides for publishing nonfiction books, tech books are unique in the publishing world, and there haven't been any guides that tackle the special process that goes into publishing a tech book. This book aims to change that.
I have authored and published a dozen books across multiple traditional tech publishers and also through self-publishing. This book distills my experience into an easy-to-follow guide that explains the full book writing and publishing process step-by-step. Topics include vetting ideas, creating an outline, pitching a publisher, writing a draft, editing, formatting, publishing, marketing, and planning future revisions.
"I wish that when I had started my journey I had found a book like this one." -- Matthew Helmke, Principal Technical Writer at StarTree.ai and the author of many technical books including Ubuntu Linux Unleashed (Pearson, 2021).
It is self-published on the Lulu platform and while the print edition is also distributed globally and available at other booksellers, Lulu would be my preference for where to purchase it. In addition to the standard paperback edition, it is also available in premium hardcover and ebook editions only on Lulu.
You can check out a sample chapter here. If you have any questions about the book, you are a book reviewer and would like a review copy, or you'd like to report errata, email me at writing at kylerank.in.
The Best of Hack and /: Linux Admin Crash Course - author - published April 2023.
I wrote a monthly column titled "Hack and /" for Linux Journal magazine for almost 12 years starting in their January 2008 issue until Linux Journal closed for good on August 7, 2019. The column aimed to provide useful tips and tricks on topics ranging from system administration to security to 3D printing to VIM. After we published my final farewell article for Linux Journal, one of the most common questions I got was "what's going to happen to the giant archive of articles?" I realized I had a whole book's worth of material just in sysadmin tips alone.
This book doesn't aim to be an exhaustive guide to everything you need to know to be a system administrator. Instead, this book allows me to act as a remote mentor to someone starting out in IT or system administration whether as a full-time job or as a full stack developer. Think of each section in a chapter like sitting down with me over lunch or looking over my shoulder as I show you a tip to save you time, a tool I've found useful, a lesson I learned the hard way, or an explanation of how I'd tackle a project you got assigned.
It is self-published on the Lulu platform and while the print edition is also distributed globally and available at other booksellers, Lulu would be my preference for where to purchase it. In addition to the standard paperback edition, it is also available in premium hardcover and ebook editions only on Lulu.
You can check out a sample chapter here. If you have any questions about the book, you are a book reviewer and would like a review copy, or you'd like to report errata, email me at writing at kylerank.in.
