Pocket Tech & Beyond

Today I'm writing about finding success as a writer and my recent award for distinguished contributions in writing & American Letters. As a past recipient of awards for excellence in writing, merit and distinguished accomplishments, I'm honored to have been nominated. I’ve written nearly 200 full-length works since I completed my first novel in 1986, but it wasn’t until 1995 that I had a breakout hit that established me as a bestselling author. I wrote those early books for Macmillan and have since had books published and/or distributed by Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Microsoft, O’Reilly, McGraw Hill, Pearson and others. My books have sold nearly 10 million copies worldwide and been translated into 34 languages, with well over $150 million in sales. That type of success is the stuff of Willy Wonka’s wildest dreams. Still, as I wrote about in “ How I Made This Crazy Thing Called Writing a Career ”, wild success doesn’t always mean riches for the w...

Recently, a reader asked a good question: How do Windows Server 2016: The Administrator's Reference and Windows Server 2016: IT Pro Library differ?  The short answer is that they are completely different texts, written separately from start to finish, while both covering Windows Server 2016. An IT Pro could own both sets, or the individual books in each set, to round out and complete their library. More specifically, Windows Server 2016: The Administrator’s Reference provides over 250,000 words covering Microsoft's latest server operating system and includes the two IT Pro Solutions books I've written for Windows Server 2016: 1. Windows Server 2016: Essentials for Administration 2. Windows Server 2016: Server Infrastructure The IT Pro Solutions books are practical and precise hands-on guides with ready answers for IT professionals. You get fast answers and quick instruction. Windows Server 2016: IT Pro Library provides over 500,000 words coveri...

2016 was the year the music almost stopped. Quite literally. The accompanying image reflects some of the books I’ve released this year. These books need your support. Hope you’ll spread the good word about them and share because without your support the music really will stop. The publishing industry continues to change, requiring authors to continually adapt and retune or succumb and perish. The entire industry continues to be dominated by Amazon, where staves prevail and good authors all too easily get lost amongst the bramble. In tech, the changes over the past few years have been apocalyptic. Fewer and fewer readers get their information from printed books, requiring publishers to rethink their entire business and authors to sing for their supper. Those few who do succeed in the widening sea of change and detritus do so by staying ahead of trends or making their own trends entirely. In the early 2000’s when I started publishing electronically and using print on demand,...

Well, I didn't win PowerBall, so I better keep writing. :-) Two BRAND NEW releases to share for my IT Pro Solutions series. I really like the covers on the IT Pro Solutions books. Beautiful, IMHO (and I hope you agree). It's the first time I've had full creative control. The interiors are just as gorgeous too. Your support needed to spread the good word so please let others know and share if you can. You'll note something new on the cover too: Recognition of my son's contributions. Will has been my go to technician and check reader for years, setting up my development environments with each and every product build and performing preliminary technical review. He's the guy triple-checking every reference, step-by-step and procedure from GUI to shell, after my own double-check. As I stated in my Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 book published by Microsoft, he's instrumental to my writing process and now he has an expanded role in the full process from sta...