Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
(terry) to me, forms is forms. Dreamweaver does them just fine. So
does Frontpage. Forms are about the easiest thing to automate, so I
can't give an advantage to any tool there, but they all beat handcoding
forms, to me. (Though you never get away from tweaking the code.)

I'd like to see the interface for Dreamweaver involve to be more
interrogatory though and less about dialog boxes that map to the spec.
Doing CSS via a dialog box is lame. There should be a visual dummy
template sandbox where you can "draw" your design and choose your
fonts, etc. visually, perhaps on some boilerplate with the same number
of text areas as your intended design.
  

    
don, re the need to update websites as fashions change. i saw a good
slam recently that i took to heart given some of my own early projects
(http://ezone.org/ez/e1/enterzone.html): "Hey, 1994 is calling... They
want their website back!

(Aside for bloggers, I checked the exact wording of that quotation
from its citation - http://www.davezilla.com/index.php?p=1277 - by
going back to my blog - http://radiofreeblogistan.com/ - and searching
for "blogger insults" in my own search box. Score one for the outboard
brain.)


As for database stuff, I still consider myself a novice at that, but
I've gotten the same idea that it's imperative. Everything is
disconnected listmaking without databases. I think eventually mastery
of one's own personal network, a cloud of data you want persistent,
secure access to, will require another evolutionary step in making the
interfaces for managing databases more inviting and understandable for
nonspecialists.

What has worked for me so far is sitting down with friends who are
much more experienced and doodling boxes and arrows on paper, while
they explain "fourth normal form," guids, key  fields, and so on and I
try to grasp it once and for all. 

Dreamweaver is great for managing a database-backed site and you could
theoretically build them in it, but I suspect most hardcore developers
have a preferred environment for that already. But DMX knows how to
"talk to" the database, so the designer can build dynamic pages off of
static templates.


A tapelist is the perfect "finite, usefull" project to teach yourself
on. I find I can never learn something technical and detail-oriented
(like programming) without a specific manageable project motivating me
to wade through the dry parts.
  

    
(jdevoto) asks the million-dollar question: "Christian, the book has a
web site (as mentioned above - <http://www.dreamweaversavvy.com/>).
How has that worked out for you? Have you seen a lot of hits on the
site? Do you think it's brought sales of the book, or is it more in the
way of an additional resource for readers?"

The site like so much on the web is a work in progress. The design is
an embarassing mockup I threw together while writing the book and never
revisited (say, maybe pasewark and i can trade services...). But I see
it mainly as an indispensable communications channel for and about the
book. There are definitely two audiences: (1) potential buyers and (2)
readers. 

For buyers there's a description and an affiliate link to Amazon, as
well as the news on the main page, links from the book, downloads, etc.
For readers, there is a place for news, updates, corrections, and a
way to give feedback and help steer future editions of the book.

I also maintain a low-traffic mailing list to gather reader feedback,
answer questions, and to help them network with each other. 

We're doing a second printing (yea!), so I'm gathering errata now.
Several readers have done a great job of identifying errors for us,
which is amazing.

What else? I don't look at the traffic on that book, except when it
flows into my RFB blog, but I do subscribe to a service that sends me
the book's Amazon rank every time it changes, and sometimes you see
bumps in both, as when I was promoting the book on The Screen Savers on
TechTV.

"Do you think the web's changing how tech books are marketed and
presented? With the web's ease of updating, will we see computer books
presented online, or does the printed doorstopper have a long life
ahead of it?"

I think the latter. As far back as '92 I remember speculating with
other computer-book industry people that we were approaching some
electronic hybrid of periodical and subscription update service, as all
the production processes telescoped in on each other in parallel. But
we're not there yet. The books serve a purpose.

It's an odd niche and I have a love/hate relationship with it myself.
Computer books sell for the same reasons self-help books sell. People
are willing to spend money on themselves, their own well being and on
anything they think likely to bring in more money than it costs (like
training, some forms of education, and some kinds of books). 

I'm all for smart books or smart paper or smart ink or whatever, and
the computer-book industry is involved in the tech-bust hangover, so
I'm not saying that nothing will ever change, but I've just heard so
many predictions about e-publishing and the end of books as we know it
and I don't see it yet. (Famous last words?)
  

    
I'm particularly interested in the place where websites and books
overlap (not suprising, as I've spent most of my adult life publishing
books or building websites). I was the agent for a book called "The
Phish Companion" (Backbeat) that grew out of a nonprofit called the
Mockingbird Foundation, composed of Phish fans who mostly knew each
other through the Internet, who banded together to encourage the
"commons," as it were, of fan-reported setlists and show reviews, etc.
The group built a website and eventually we did a first edition of the
book containing much of the info at the site along with some original
material. In the meantime the archive has grown and the
database-to-book transformation tools have become more sophisticated,
and Phish is touring again, so we'll be doing a second edition next
year.

But I loved that this book emerged from a web-mediated collaboration.
Ideally a book and a website could feed off and feed into each other,
in a kind of seesaw or swing motion.

With my current hobbyhorse, blogging, I see huge potential for a
writer to start blogging a topic, "own it" (to quote John Robb), and
eventually get an offer to do a book on said topic, based mainly on a
kind of self-generated credibility through doing. In that case, you
don't have to build a website as an awkward appendage to a book. The
website exists, it mentions the book. The book mentions the website,
and ever onward.
  

    

The official time span of this interview is at an end, but that's no reason
to stop talking!  Thank you, Christian, for being here, and thank you,
Jeanne, for interrogating him so productively.

Carry on!
  

    
I just go the book delivered today. Great job Christian. Thanks!
  

    
Thank you, Don. Now let's talk about my website's crappy design...
  

    <scribbled by gail Fri 7 Feb 03 14:13>
  

    
(Arrg. Fixing for readability.  Sorry about that; here's a do-over:)

That would be fascinating.  You've talked a bit about having to stay
fashionable, and above you said of  http://www.dreamweaversavvy.com/

   "The design is an embarassing mockup I threw together
   while writing the book and never revisited"

So xian, what does revisting look like for you?  Do you literally go visit
there and note what makes you say ouch?  Or do you look for sites you admire
and want to, um, use for inspiration?
  

    
When I say I "never revisited it" I mean the design, not the site! I
do tweak the site from time to time, with news, etc. Or uploading
errata or missing files. Things like that.

If I were going to redesign an existing site, I'd go back to the
fundamentals: audience, purpose, etc. 

The stumbling block for me is that I don't have great graphic design
chops. I like to draw and paint, etc., but I don't have a bag o' tricks
for coming up with color/image/layout ideas. I generally work with
people who have those skills (such as the coauthor of my upcoming book
that I can't talk about yet).

For paying projects I work with teams or pay subcontractors. For less
$$-oriented projects I try to trade skills. (Like: give me three comps
and I'll edit the copy for your project.)

For my book's website, I really just want a new "skin." That is, the
functionality is mininal and acceptable. The look is just kind of
clunky to my eye, very rectilinear, not very elegant. Someone with
superior graphic design skills could mock up a new home page and a new
subpage template for me and I'd slice it up in Fireworks, make a CSS
stylesheet, and slap it down on top of the existing content.
  

    
That sounds just right.
  

    
Christian,

When I get finished with this "website from hell" I would like to take
a wack at the redesign you mentioned.

The current beast is 150+ pages with over 600 images that have to be
edited by hand, plus a dynamic component that I've never done. needless
to say, I'm putting the guy at the hosting ISP through his paces. :-}!