 I'll mention, by the way, that I did not name this presentation. The university took care of that for me, so I thank that. Well, you didn't give me a title, so I might have not. That's true. So I was at their mercy, and I appreciate the expletive. So my name's Andrea. I'm an editor for Morgan Kauffman, and if you guys have any questions, you guys feel free to approach me any time that you see me walking around here. So I don't want to spend much time talking about MK at all, but I do want to quick show a hands for those of you in the room who have written a book, regardless of what the topic has been on, or who you've published with. Just raise your hand if you've written a book, OK? So there's a good number. That's kind of nuts. All right, hands down. So now raise your hand if you've ever pondered the idea of writing a book. Again, topic doesn't matter. Yeah, all right, cool. So there are a lot of you, so I'm glad that this is a somewhat relevant, you know, quick five minutes of my time. All right, so here are some just general tips for writing a publishing proposal. If you're ever thinking about writing a book, these are just the top three things I think as somebody who evaluates book proposals, you should keep your eye out for. Number one, most important thing is know your audience. So who will actually buy and read your book? And these are important notes here, because every proposal I receive has some sort of breakdown of audience, a primary audience and secondary audience. I can't tell you the number of technical book proposals that I read that include senior management in that audience. And the fact is that for a lot of technical books, senior management is not reading that book. We all want them to, right, but they're not. So this is the important point here, buy and read. That's your audience, and that's who you write for. And anybody above and beyond that is secondary and really shouldn't be who you're talking to as you craft the proposal and write the book. Second, know your competition. This is really, really important. If a publishing company is reviewing your proposal and you don't know your competition and they're finding that when they're reviewing your proposal, they're uncovering more and more competitors that you hadn't already identified, then they're going to think, is this person really offering anything new that isn't already covered by the literature that's out there? So not only do you have to know what's out there, but you should read what's out there first. And it's so easy to do this now. Quick search on Amazon and a quick search on Google Books to search for all the keywords your topic goes by. So not just the book title, but the major chapter headers. These are important things to keep your eyes out for. And other words that it goes by, even if you disagree with those phrases and terminology used. And then know your content expertise. And craft a really detailed table of contents that really reflects your expertise. So now some tips for writing a great book. Again, this kind of comes right off the last point, but know yourself. So not just your expertise, but your work habits, the amount of time that takes you to do certain amount of work. Remembering that working with a publisher requires that you stick to a schedule. And having a very realistic schedule with yourself before you even embark on this process really helps along the way. So be realistic about what you can finish and buy when. Be receptive to feedback. If you really want to write a book, you are going to receive a lot of feedback from the publisher, from peer reviewers of the proposal, from peer reviewers of the manuscript, and from the actual end consumer of the book. And you've got to have a thick skin to be able to internalize all of that and realize when it's right, when it maybe meets you halfway, and when it should be dismissed, because it's just not relevant. And then remember that reviewer's feedback, whether it's an Amazon review or a publisher's comment, is that reviewer's feedback. And maybe that's not in line with the book that you want to write, and that's fine. Because at the end of the day, if you're the author and your name is going on the book, it's your book. And then try to understand the process from the very beginning. This is a key point that can really, I think, mitigate a lot of the pain points that happen for authors as they're writing, especially their first book, learn the details of manuscript delivery and production process. Our proposal form is online at mkp.com. slash write for MK. Well done. Thank you.