1. Did you have to 'kick back' any money? To those that you interviewed, or companies where you used their screenshots in your examples/critiques? Did you reach out to them and notifying them that they/their company will be in your book for profit?
2. From the sample chapter, you talk a lot about principles and critiques of interface design but are there any area in the book where there are data or user ability studies to explain it further (ie: why they work)? Or is most of it based on experience?
3. Any plans for a sample page on the case study? I think that's where the most value is - the full process of where you take us through your thoughts and reasoning on designing a product.
1. No, I didn't. Everyone was very gracious and there was never an expectation for money. For some people like patio11 and Jason Fried my book sales would not represent a meaningful amount of money. It's better to not even bring it up. Many of the people I interviewed have become friends and I try to help them in any way possible.
For companies I didn't contact them in most cases. The few I did talk to were thrilled their designs were being used as an example in a book.
2. This book is light on data and studies. That's a short coming. These are all techniques that I know work well, but I don't always have a study to back it up.
3. I'm not sure what you mean about a sample page for the case study. To better market it? That case study has a lot of great content and I'll be working with the company further to write a lot more articles and tutorials around what we all learned in that process.
Thanks for the answers. Copyright use of images, especially screenshots, had always been a confusion point for me.
For the case study, basically I'd like to know what it entails before purchasing. All the other content speak of principles and guidelines but I find it more interesting to read about an actual case study, the thoughts and reasoning behind the decisions made. (I can't find what the case study was about too - just that it's a time tracking service. Is it Harvest? Basecamp?)
You said you'll be working with the company further, I look forward to that one!
Maybe have a chat to Drew Wilson who is working on http://spacebox.io. It's a nifty little tool for collecting payments via Stripe.
I believe he's currently working on adding subscription payments (and hopefully invoicing) which I am very keen to get but affiliates/electronic delivery could be another great add-on for him to deliver.
The most important thing was my commitment to write 1,000 words a day. I am 160 days in. After that was having a short deadline. Since I made the december 12th launch date public I knew I had to hit it. So I compressed everything necessary into that short time.
I'm fascinated by your goal and the way you accomplished it. Aside from writing 1,000 words a day, there are so many other things that must have gone into your books and sites that I am left wondering how you found the motivation for it all.
Did you really make all of the graphics and layouts (perfectly I might add), create a book landing page, tweak your blog to promote the book, maintain your Twitter following, deal with miscellaneous tasks (server configurations, etc), conduct interviews, do the copyediting and review process, all while writing 1,000 words a day, in the same timespan?
Did you have a life? Did you ever take time to watch a TV show or switch off your computer or phone? Really inspiring stuff man, great work!
