Stuart Leeks is the author of Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2) – Tips, Tricks, and Techniques, 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.
Stuart: I’ve blogged and delivered user group sessions about WSL, and was approached by an acquisition editor to discuss an outline for the book.
Q: How long did it take you to write the book?
Stuart: We spent around a month discussing the content outline, book-length, writing schedule, etc. Once the contract was signed it took 6 months to write the book and go through the editorial and technical review cycles.
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Stuart: I’m fairly familiar with WSL from regular usage, so there wasn’t a lot of research before starting writing, but various points in the book needed research! For example, while I do things a certain way from personal preference I needed to cover alternatives that I was less familiar with. Some of the example content also took quite a bit of preparation time, especially for some of the later chapters.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Stuart: I realized that I don’t normally write content linearly! Whether it is blog posts, magazine articles, or conference sessions, I tend to start with a big bulleted list as a rough outline and gradually flesh that out. At some point that tips over into the text or slides for the actual content, but I normally work on the middle section first. Once the middle content is done, I work to the conclusion and then come back for the introduction last. Working sequentially through chapters challenged my normal process!
Q. How do you keep up-to-date on your tech?
Stuart: A combination of blogs, Twitter and friends/colleagues 🙂
Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?
Stuart: I blog at https://stuartleeks.com, and have a site for the book at https://wsl.tips
Q. Can you share any blogs, websites, and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?
Stuart: For WSL and Windows Terminal: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/ For upcoming Windows features: https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/ For Docker news: https://www.docker.com/blog/
Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Stuart: It has been intense! The editorial team was great as I restructured content during the process, even moving some chapters around to make sure we got the best flow through the content.
You can find Stuart’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here
