Mert is the author of Serverless Analytics with Amazon Athena, we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Mert: Packt reached out to one of my colleagues, Anthony Virtuoso, who asked me if I wanted to join him.
Q: How long did it take you to write the book?
Mert: Too long. 9 Months to write 5 chapters
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Mert: I was very familiar with the topic at hand as I was an original member of the service team that build the AWS service. I was also engaged as a Solutions architect for many years after that.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Mert: The largest challenge that I had was time. I had a child in early the process, thinking I can take some of my sabbaticals to write my chapters. The opposite happened.
Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?
Mert: Doing/Trying is a better way of learning than reading.
Q. How do you keep up-to-date on your tech?
Mert: I am involved deeply with the AWS services in the tech area, and I talk to a lot of customers as a Solutions Architect. I also read/write blog posts for the AWS Big Data Blog.
Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?
Mert: AWS Big Data Blog which I have contributed to, and will contribute to while I am employed by AWS.
Q. Can you share any blogs, websites and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?
Mert: AWS Big Data Blog. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/big-data/
Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Mert: I would recommend it. It has been an interesting journey and a good learning experience.
You can find Mert‘s book on Amazon by following this link
