Dylan Hildenbrand is the author of SvelteKit Up and Running; we got the chance to sit down and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: What is the name of your book?
Dylan: The book is titled SvelteKit Up and Running.
Q: What are your specialist tech areas?
Dylan: I’m a full-stack web developer with a penchant for solving problems and integrating systems. I’ve worked with lots of PHP and more recently, JS.
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Dylan: I had been writing about technical hurdles I had overcome with SvelteKit on my website when I received an email encouraging me to write this book. I thought, “That’s an opportunity I can’t pass up!
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Dylan: I spent nearly a month on research before ever writing a word for this book. All of that time was used to comb through documentation and various resources online.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Dylan: The biggest challenge was one all writers encounter; writer’s block. The technique that helped me overcome this was by writing an outline within each chapter and making notes to my future self.
Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?
Dylan: I probably wouldn’t have written a book about SvelteKit if I didn’t think it was awesome. It feels like a framework that gets out of your way and lets you rapidly build cool things.
Q: Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
Dylan: I wrote this book to be the resource I wish I had when learning SvelteKit. It keeps the concepts clear and concise while remaining practical.
Q: What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away with from the book?
Dylan: The main takeaway from this book should be that SvelteKit is a great JS framework for building your next application with.
Q. What advice would you give to readers jumping into this technology? Do you have any top tips?
Dylan: Once you’ve mastered the concepts (like routing) behind SvelteKit, do yourself a favor and become a Svelte master. Svelte makes building web apps fun again.
Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?
Dylan: Yes! I’ve been writing about various technical challenges related to web development for close to a decade at https://www.closingtags.com
Q: Can you share any blogs, websites, and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning? What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away with from the book?
Dylan: The official website for SvelteKit can be found at kit.svelte.dev. It has loads of resources and information for aspiring SvelteKit developers.
Q. How would you describe your author’s journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Dylan: The publishing team has been great to work with. They’ve been so responsive and provided lots of great feedback throughout the process. I never would have finished this book without them.
Q. Do you belong to any tech community groups?
Dylan: I participate in several local tech groups in my area. Their subjects range from JavaScript to WordPress and even to cyber security!
Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?
Dylan: I mostly follow RSS feeds of too many independent blogs listed here but I also participate in several large group chats.
Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?
Dylan: I’m used to using project management tools like Kanban boards. I approached this book just like any other web app project and created boards and cards for each task.
Q. What is that one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
Dylan: Outline often! By writing an outline for each chapter, I was able to see a holistic view of the book. It also helped me to organize my notes and ideas for each section.
Q. Would you like to share your social handles? If so, please share.
Dylan: I can be reached on my website at https://www.closingtags.com/contact or on Mastodon at https://mastodon.social/@closingtags
You can find Dylan’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here
