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September 19, 2004
Improving Books by Reading the Web
I've been reading a book on dog training called "Click for Joy!" It's an extremely well organized and well written. But this blog isn't about dog training, so why am I telling you this? Because I was struck by how much the organization and content was influenced by the internet.
Several years before writing the book, the author started a mailing list on clicker-training called ClickerSolutions. As the list grew, she quickly realized that the same questions were asked over and over again. So she decided to compile those questions and write detailed answers, hence the question and answer format of the book, and the inclusion of information that is bound to be relevant to the readers as it was essentially dictated by individuals interested and new to the topic. Case studies and quotes illustrate many of the points, and likely originated on the mailing list as well.
Then there is the organization. Each question/answer is typically short, just a page or two at the most, and included is a sidebar is a list of questions on related topics with associated page numbers, just about the closest thing you could get to a hyperlink in a book format.
Could this book have been written without the lessons learned on the web? Sure, but I'd lay bets it wouldn't have been nearly as informative. Perhaps what we've learned about writing for the web can also improve our print communications as well.
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