
Ask HN: Do I need to be an expert on some technology to write a book on it? - asadjb
I recently published a book. It&#x27;s about Django, a technology I&#x27;ve been using for more than 5 years now. I consider myself pretty good at working with Django which is why when a publisher approached me to write it I was happy to jump at the opportunity.<p>I agreed to write the book because I though it would be a nice challenge, and I couldn&#x27;t miss the chance to call my self an author on my profile! But having gone through the year long process of writing and publishing it, I now would love to do it again. The whole process felt pretty awesome, and I learned a <i>ton</i> of new things about Django that I would not otherwise have looked into. I have approached a publisher with an idea for another Django book but they say that the target market isn&#x27;t big enough. However they say they&#x27;d be happy to hear about other ideas from me.<p>What I&#x27;d like to ask the HN crowd is that should I be experienced in a technology before I can even consider writing about it? Or should I just pick something I&#x27;m interested in and start writing, figuring out the details along the way? Do you guys have any experience with this?
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celticninja
You could write a book about a technology you don't know but the book would be
of little use as yiu would perhaps not know certain things, such as best
practices, features and bugs with the technology.

You would also do a disservice to users who pick up your book hoping to learn
from it.

As an example Learn C the hard way was written by Zed A Shaw of Learn python
the hard way fame. He did not know C before he started and the book is
currently on the "to be avoided" list on this page about C books

[http://www.iso-9899.info/wiki/Books](http://www.iso-9899.info/wiki/Books)

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asadjb
Thanks. That's what I thought as well. Writing a book on a technology without
any experience in it probably isn't the best idea. :)

But maybe I can pick up something I find interesting, learn it and create a
few projects with it, and then I can write about it.

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brudgers
Non-fiction authors writing books based on their research is bog standard. I
don't think technology writing is a snowflake.

Good luck.

