This is a story (the short version) of my personal journey to becoming an author. Thank you to everyone in the WordPress community that has helped make this happen by allowing me to be a part of the community over the last few years.
The early years
As I was growing up in smalltown Alabama, I always wanted to be a writer. From about the time I could hold a crayon, I was writing something. Writing on the walls. The kitchen table. Occasionally, on paper. From what my parents tell me, I could do this quite well at about the age of 3.
During my pre-teen years, I wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps and write songs, so music and lyrics were my first introduction to how beautiful language could be.
Eventually, I outgrew my songwriting phase. Be glad I did. The world certainly doesn’t need any more boy-band pop songs. I figured I could offer something of a little more substance to the world.
High school
In high school, I had the most wonderful English teacher. She was one of those teachers that understood that literacy is not just about basic reading and writing skills. Literature. Technology. Music. Film. Those are the things that matter. Don’t get me wrong. We still had to do the boring high school English class stuff. But, she opened my mind to the world outside of the small town I was living in.
At some point during my senior year I realized that I wanted to write. I mean really write. It was the first time I’d ever put “write a book” on my list of life goals.
College
I graduated from Auburn University in 2007 with a B.A. in English and a concentration in creative writing and journalism.
When I began college, I didn’t plan on having a degree in English. I was in software engineering. Then I was in hotel and restaurant management. Then I was in software engineering again. Like many other college students, I bounced around majors a few times. It was tough finding something that was both enjoyable and challenging.
Despite protests from friends and a few from my family, I decided to take the plunge and declare myself as an English major. What I found was something that I loved. How could anyone not love reading 20+ books a semester? I had the time of my life exploring ethnographic studies, novels, and even the Bible as literature.
Each professor impacted my life in some way. Each class allowed me to explore other cultures. Each friend I got to know, helped shape me.
By the time I graduated, I had narrowed my list of life goals down to a few things. At the top of that list: Write something that has an impact on someone’s life.
At some point during college, I also started learning HTML, CSS, PHP, and WordPress.
After college
Harsh realization that life is not all roses and peaches.
…Time spent wandering the globe…
I moved back to Alabama last year because I wanted to get back to my roots. I wanted to engulf myself in the white-trash, trailer-park, tobacco-chewing culture that I hadn’t been a part of in so long.
The plan: Observe the culture. Write.
I could give you at least 100 reasons why I haven’t finished a novel yet, but I won’t. There’s no point in trying to justify losing sight of my goal.
I also spent some more time playing around with WordPress during this phase of my life. I suppose that time could’ve been spent working on the great Southern American novel.
An opportunity
A few months ago, I received an email about collaborating on a WordPress plugin development book for Wrox, a company devoted to publishing books “by programmers for programmers.”
At first, I was a bit hesitant to take on any extra WordPress projects. It also meant that I wouldn’t be able to apply for teaching jobs this school year, which was one of my goals for 2010. And, it wasn’t quite what I had in mind when I put “write a book” on my list of life goals.
However, it was an opportunity to write about something I’m passionate about.
The book
We have a great team of WordPress minds melding for what will be an awesome WordPress plugin development book. Brad Williams, Ozh Richard, and I are the writers. We’ve also picked up Andrew Nacin as our WordPress technical editor.
As a sidenote to this: I’m convinced that Andrew is actually a super-advanced robot that has been programmed to do nothing other than write awesome WordPress code. And, I’m happy to have him on the team.
I don’t want to get into too many technical details about the book yet. I do want to say that it will be a great resource for professional plugin development. We will put everything we have into making this the best book on creating plugins available for WordPress.
For me, this book announcement is mostly about sharing my personal journey to this point. I am thankful that Wrox, Brad, and Ozh are giving me an opportunity to realize one of my lifelong dreams. And, I hope that all my readers will come along on this journey with me (and buy the book when it’s published in March).
Also, check out theses posts by Brad and Ozh:
I love the way you write about WordPress on JT.com anyway, and I’m really excited about this book too, so excited that I asked Ozh when pre-order was going to be available?!
I’ve mostly been sticking to my usual formula with the book so far. Writing those long, in-depth tutorials has definitely helped prepare me.
Rock on Justin! — Oh and March 2010 isn’t that far away!
@Mark – March 2010? Either i’m missing something or you have mistaken the year
“I love it when a plan comes together”
Congrats Justin!
20+ years in the making.
Can i be the first person to buy it. Is here any way I could book it in advance
It’s not available for order yet. I’ll be sure to write a blog post to announce when it’ll be ready.
What an awesome journey so far.
I’m definitely excited about the rest of the journey. It’s going to be a lot of hard work, but it’ll be worth it in the end.
I can definitely say writing a book is hard. Really hard. (worth it so far tho)
Lot of new authors in the WordPress-sphere, so you have loads of us to commiserate with.
Hey, I’ve always really appreciated your column, and it’s exciting to see an Auburn grad achieve so much success!
So do you have any advice for those of us currently at Auburn as far as educational resources? Did you take specific Web programming classes here, or are you self-educated?
I’m at the Media Production Group here (auburn.edu/mpg) – let me know if we can ever help you out, since you’ve helped us so much!
I always love it when I have Auburn folks stop by the site. I hope you’re ready for this weekend!
I didn’t learn much about Web programming from classes. While in software engineering, I learned a lot about how programming languages work, which was beneficial since code formatting easily carries across languages. Most of what I’ve learned in this area has come from being a part of the WordPress community and good ol’ fashioned trial and error.
I write and communicate with others every day though. I do this more often than writing code. It doesn’t matter what field you’re in, communication skills are a priority. Even though I was an English major, I’d argue that my journalism classes helped me the most in this department. I’d recommend a few intro journalism classes to everyone. I can’t remember having a single professor I didn’t like from the journalism department.
I have two general pieces of advice: 1) Be passionate about what you do. If you’re not willing to do it for free, then it’s probably not the path for you. 2) Always use WordPress when building Web sites.
War Eagle!
War Eagle! Congratulations, Justin. I’m sure it will be a great book.
Justin always appreciate your articles and tutorials, a book is the next logical step. I for one will definitely be interested in whatever you write, good luck!
I think it’s about time for a book too. I could use a little focus in my writing.
I also dreamed of becoming a writer. After reading your article, I learned some valuable experience.
Keep at it. What I’ve learned thus far is that you have to be patient. Even though it’s something I love doing, it’s tough keeping focused on one goal because I tend to jump from project to project a lot.
I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the writing process in the coming months, so maybe I’ll have some other experiences worth sharing.
Thank you for sharing your personal journey. It is inspirational. Congratulations.
Thanks. I hope to share even more of the journey throughout the writing and publishing process.
Congratulations, Justin. I’m looking forward to reading the book!
Is it ready yet?
It should be published in March 2011. That’s about the time I’ll be emailing you, “Hey, good friend! Please promote my book.”
I can’t wait to get a couple of copies, one for home, and one for work. Your posts are always easier to read, and more to the point, and I am sure the book will be as well. I wish you the best, in all you do!!
That’s how we should promote the book — Grab a copy for home and for work.
Congrats, Justin!
Finally a book on Wordpress plugin development by people that I really trust and respect. It’s going to be awesome.
BTW, does the book have a title already?
How about “Teach Yourself Wordpress Plugin Development in 20 years or Less”?
We’re going with “Professional WordPress Plugin Development.” Ozh wanted “Pluginz That Pwn,” but that didn’t work out.
You should update “About” page.
One day I might actually get around to that. Ever notice how developers tend to neglect their own sites?
Pumped! You’ve got an easy to follow along style to your writing that I’m sure will make this book a blast to read.
Congrats and looking forward to reading it!
Thanks. Of course, this means I’ll have even less time for my blog for a few months.
They have chosen the right person and this is definitely a book that I will look forward to. It’s a great team, so all the best!
We definitely have a good team. It’s been a blast working with everyone so far.
nice work Justin, I too love to write, however I can not keep my mind concentrated on one story at a time lol, I sometimes think my mind is “too” active, as it flitters from one story idea to another, at one point I had over 50 started stories and not a single finished one.
I’m all over the place too, going from project to project. This has always been one of my biggest problems. I’ll try to blog more about the book writing process as I go along though. Maybe I’ll be able to offer some helpful hints on staying focused.
I can assure you, I’m not a robot.
Thanks for the generous words. I’m stoked to be part of this project working with you all.
I’m just glad you’re on board, whether it’s the robot or human version of you.
I spent 3 months every Summer in Selma, AL and it was glorious.
. Can’t wait for the book. I actually did fall out of my kneeling bench back saver chair this time. Congratulations my friend….well deserved.
The next time you’re visiting Alabama, shoot me an email. I love to meet the real-life versions of people I know online.
Congrats Justin! Enjoy the feeling of being a published author, it’s great. Looking forward to reading it
Thanks. Just a few more months of grueling work before I can relax and enjoy it.
Looking forward to the book. I love every thing you have done for the wordpress community. Keep up the great work.
I wish you much success on the new book.
I try to give back in any way I can. The WordPress community has probably done more for me than I have for it.
Congrats Justin!
I’m sure your books will be very useful to all of us
Stefano
I hope so. If nothing else, I hope it helps plugin authors create better, more secure, and cleanly-coded plugins.
I am delighted to hear about the book. Can’t wait.
And I must say, relieved to hear that you may forgo setting aside your WordPress expertise for teaching in a school setting. Considering your expertise in relation to the Robinson Crusoe-Friday economic dynamic, it seems “author” is an excellent path for your career at this point. While writing your book, you may want to re-consider your long-term career goals.
I have a great deal of experience with teaching in a variety of settings, traditional or not, from esteemed university to innovative pre-K. Helping people by teaching them new things is a wonderful thing. But working for an institutionalized learning facility is… not.
Beyond the endless hassles and political (and economic) dangers of being subject to frustrated educational administrators (been there, done that, as well), there is the harsh reality that it is nearly impossible to overcome your students’ home environment. This is because, in general, the two main factors of educational success are typically beyond your control — class size and parental involvement. Thus, much of what you do has little impact, and has more to do with supporting the institution, rather than your students’ learning.
As a bit of a reality check, compare the reach and impact of a typical school teacher versus someone like Lynda.com or Khan Academy, where either proprietor has helped millions of people to directly advance their learning and improve their careers & family’s lifestyle. Millions. Like Bill Gates’ family, my own children *love* Khan.
Either in a for- or non-profit setting, reinventing teaching with the Internet as the center of society, rather than a reluctant add-on to centuries-old institutions, has enormous potential to reach your students, enhance their lives, and better your own family’s life. You are the rare person who can implement the technology almost as an afterthought, whereas others simply don’t get it, and/or could never execute Internet-empowered education successfully.
FWIW, if you really want to teach, face to face, then consider homeschooling your own children: the people who not only can be greatly influenced by your instruction and example, but who want, require, and *need* your help most as a teacher — and where your “class” size and parental involvement guarantees your teaching success.
I’m always reevaluating my long-term career goals. Teaching at a public school is still up there on my list. I have a ton of reasons for this, but I won’t get into them right now. I’ll probably save that discussion for another day.
Great – not just a great author but a publisher who has a history of first rate technical books
To be honest, I’d never even heard of Wrox until a few months ago. I had a chance to stop by a bookstore soon after and checked out some of the things they’ve published. Everything I saw looked well done, so I’m expecting that they’ll help make this a quality book.
Never heard of Wrox?!? Oh my. I got to know the founders from the UK as they were launching back in the late 90s. I probably have more than 100 Wrox titles on my bookshelf, this being one of them:
http://mikeschinkel.com/blog/wroxsprofessionalweb20programming/
Anyway, good luck!
Hey Justin Congrats!
What a nice journey you have experienced. Best luck for the new book.Hope it will have a good time.
It’s been quite a ride so far. I can’t wait to finish and have you all be an even bigger part of the journey.
Hell yeah!
Sounds like the perfect gig for you. You’re working with an awesome team too. I can’t wait to read the final product.
Yep, it’s been a great opportunity and I’m glad I was invited to be a part of the project.
Congratulations Justin, you deserve it! Your writing is very rich and clear. You, Brad and Ozh will write an excellent book for sure!
Thanks. Ozh and Brad’s writing has been great so far too. It’s been a breeze working with those guys.
The road to a writers hell is paved with unfinished material, but you found your niché in the end. I’m glad you did. Though do you truly believe there is one book to rule them all?
I don’t. I think its about feeling your way through, letting emotion and raw workforce guide the transition from worm to colossus.
You’ve strayed from your original lifelong dream and undergone a transition, jumping to a parallel boat in order to gain success for your ability to write.
Congratulations on the book, I hope more will follow.
That’s definitely the road to a writer’s hell. I know. This book has given me a lot more focus and clear goals though. Plus, I’m contract, so I have to finish.
I will get a copy immediately!
Just be sure to keep an eye out on the blog come March 2011.
Thank you for sharing your personal journey. It is inspirational. Congratulations.
I thought the story would be appropriate and would offer a better read than a simple announcement post. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
It is good to hear that things are working out for you. I will have to try Word Press
Not using WordPress now?
Looking forward to reading it Justin.
I’m looking forward to reading it too. You’d be amazed at how much I’ve learned just from seeing my coauthors’ work so far.
Justin,
Congrats – that’s a pretty big achievement. I can only imagine the effort and time that was needed to become an author. How were WROX to deal with – did they offer good support and backing?
Well, we’re not finished yet, so I’ll save my post on how the publishing company works for later. So far, they’ve been pretty great about everything.
Since I discovered the Hybrid Theme some weeks ago, I asked myself, how you earn money for a living. I asked myself: Does he work as a journalist? A webdevelopper. Contributing so much time and effort in your platform, having so many skills to do it proper and right, I just have to say thank you. Joining the Hybrid Club and reading those excellent tutorials made my day.
Respect from Germany and all the best for the book. The work will be hard and I hope it will be a bestseller. Because with a bestseller you get some money back you spent writing a book.
I dabble in several different projects, making sure I have multiple streams of income. I don’t generally like to put too many eggs in one basket, which gives me some flexibility for trying out new things such as writing a book.
Great project, I hope you get the success you deserve and worked for!
Congrats Justin.
I just had my first book (AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011: No Experience Required) published with Wiley/Sybex this past June, and have just started the acquisitions process for my second book now. Although I don’t have any experience with Wiley/Wrox, I can say without reservation that Wiley/Sybex has been an excellent group to work with, and wouldn’t expect any less from Wrox.
Weighing in at 1,008 pages, I’d say my writing experience could be summarized like this. Writing begins – this is AWESOME, I can’t believe I’m actually writing a book. Around 50% when you’re juggling writing the next chapter with DE/TE Author Reviews, CE Author Reviews, and probably some more stuff (like renumbering TIF’s because figure numbers changed) – my life sucks, why did I agree to this? As you’re finishing – I can’t believe I made it this far without becoming clinically insane. When the book shows up on your doorstep – speechless.
From one author to another – good luck. It’s an incredible journey that I’d certainly encourage anyone given the opportunity to take.
Hy Justin,
Congrats from Germany. Mika
That’s a great story. I myself had a similar path as I graduated college in 2007 with a degree in screenwriting. I found life pretty hard after school and have only just found my way back into writing. I love it and I can see you do too. It’s an inspirational story!
I remember before you came back from Korea, how you “talked” about what to to once you were back in the US, and the fact that your Fam bought you a book (or something) describing how to start your own business.
Clearly you’ve stayed on that path and it’s such pleasure seeing you pursuing your dreams (or wishes), and actually taking and giving – ’cause that’s the point of life.
Every step we take should be a step forward, so keep walkin’ Justin.
Congrats on the book… I have always wanted to write one and be published myself… I have one half way done but as you know it is time consuming, very time consuming.
Congrats again
Oh one more thing the world can always use another boy band song, can’t it?
It seems like you have been on quite the journey! Keep going towards your dreams good job on the wordpress book!
I Learn and I’ve read, this is a good news, the boss ……… may be an invaluable experience and additional knowledge for me, as well as an introduction from me and thank you
Congrats for making your dream come true.
Impossible to know how many have wanted, tried and not succeeded to get their manuscript published. I’m sure the percentage must be daunting.
Only preseverance, blood and guts can get you through and, where we needed luck before, now we have the support of the Wordpress community.
All the best!
We will waiting your Book, released it on Kindle or Apple eBook will be better
Release it and I am sure you will do well, lots of room for authors as yourself.
waiting for the great book hope it will reach me here in Africa.
I’m always have a dream of writing a book of my journey, but when considering the related things, it becomes complicated, thank you for sharing your experience, and I will say it really helps me a lot!
I too have attempted to write a eBook. It’s been hard to follow through even though I feel like I have some valuable information that would create a nice eBook. Good luck
I just happen to come across your site and was looking at it. I was wanting to create a personal blog page and was looking at wordpress or blogspot. Didn’t know which to go with. I saw a Tadlock that has written a book that was from Alabama. Was wondering if that was you. Really like your site. Keep up the good work.
Congrat Jus! Enjoy. Looking good one to reading thanx
Congratulations! The Internet offers so many opportunities to writers. Now you can be your own publisher. You don’t have to rely some agent or publishing executive to decide that your work is worth publishing.
As an aspiring author and ebook publisher, I can appreciate ANYTHING that will help someone (mainly me) write and/or publish a book. It never even occured to me that Wordpress could be used in this capacity. Something to consider. Thanks.
Congrats Justin
Not until the beginning of this year did I start to blog. Then, I’ve always happy to know that there is somebody reading my posts. Your story encourage me a lot in writing more blog posts. You have just taught me that blogging and passion require determination and patience. Thanks for that and congratulation!
wow, justing
congrats.. nice post,,
No matter what your dream is about writing books, one thing is true…the better they sell, the more satisfying the ultimate process.
I have to say it´s easy for most non-english speaker to read your posts or explanations, I think is because your’re clear and honest, never looking for that “write-only-things-catched-by-serch-engines”, world needs this!
Thanks for all things I learn and congratulations.
Congratulations, Justin!
Like you, writing something wonderful was a long-held dream of mine, and I was so thrilled and happy with the chance to work on ‘Build Your Own Wicked WordPress Themes’. It’ll be ten tons of fun!
[Late to the party, but glad I finally read this.]
you manage to do a lot, in such a short post. Many “life lesson” bloggers would find value in the underlying message about seizing opportunities regardless of how different things are from our expectations. Those who blog about writing (and other former English majors) can probably identify with your narrative and use it to discuss the value of writing in all its forms. More technically-inclined people might be reminded of blogging’s textual foundation. Those who follow your WordPress work are given valuable context, which helps explain why your approach to theme/plugin development is so thoughtful and why you put so much emphasis on providing elaborate learning tools. Future readers of your book are also given a taste of what that collaboration might look like. And members of the ThemeHybrid community are told about some of your plans.
So, good job on this post!
If your writing skills are put to use in that book, it should indeed be a must-buy.
I’m also intrigued by your mention of ethnography. In my experience, few people know what it is, which makes it a more useful label for my work than anthropology. Care to reveal what this was about? Was Clifford and Marcus’s Writing Culture involved? Reason I ask is that it was a turning point in terms of looking at ethnographies as a literary genre.
Thanks for a remarkable post. As I tweeted recently about somebody else’s multifaceted writing, this is exactly what blogging is about!
Best of luck with the book and with applications for teaching jobs.
I had one of the best college professors ever for Intro to Writing (or whatever it’s called). Basically, the class was supposed to be one of those anyone-that-can-hold-a-pencil-can-pass type of classes. A new professor took over the it days before the semester started, so the entire lesson plan was changed. Sometimes this type of thing doesn’t turn out so well, but he’s one of those teachers that changed my entire world view.
We had to do an ethnographic study throughout the semester. We’d do field notes and summaries of our work once a month or so. My paper was a study on pre-K toddlers and how they were developing reading and writing skills. Each person in the class had to write a paper on literacy within a certain sub-culture since literacy was the main focus of the class. At first, I thought this would be the worst project I’d ever have to do, but it turned out to be one of the best.
Once or twice a week, I’d stay after class with my professor and we’d discuss different books we were reading. I probably read 20 books he suggested that semester. The book that got me started was Friday Night Lights (believe it or not). My professor told me that a book about football was the type of stuff we were covering. No way I was turning down that reading opportunity. The book covered much more than football though. It described my life story, my town, and the culture I was surrounded by growing up. It was a perfect introduction into this new genre for me.
That’s the somewhat-short version of why I mentioned ethnography.
I haven’t read Writing Culture, but I’ll add it to my wish list since you mentioned it.
Hey Congratulations. I really am impressed by your sharing and am looking forward to your publications. Best of luck to you in the coming future too. I am also working on similar goals and so far have not achieved something concrete. Fingers crossed for me too.
Congratulations – whilst it may not be the type of writing you’ve always dreamed of it’s certainly an achievement, well done
Nice to hear your story.
I love your work. I am a poweruser for WP and want to turn developer (I know it’s a looong way). Have some skill programming, but not much.
What books would you recommend for Wordpress, Theme & Plugin development (for beginners, hehe).
Note: Do not need anything in the form of “for Dummies” :]
Your site provides a very useful resource especially for people that publish and manage their own websites. I really appreciate that there are experts like you that willingly share your expertise to people like me who are looking for answers on web publishing. I sure am looking forward to your book. Good luck Justin.
Thank you for sharing. Nice work Justin.
Very nice journey!!!
Definitely this is helpful to becoming Authors.
Thanks.