In the meantime we’ve got our book in hardcover on Amazon and Barnes&Noble, as well as the Kindle version. So having published it we need to publicize it. We got an initial order of 256 from the printer, which arrive one afternoon on my driveway as a mountain of boxes. My wife was immediately skeptical that we’d ever get rid of them. However, they’ve been steadily dissapearing. One of the fun things about being an author, is that as one meets new people in business, the books make great gifts. Wev’e also started making speaking appearances. This week we were at SDForum, and sold some copies there. So by now the mountain of boxes is rapidly evaporating, and I’m thinking about getting some more. Of course right now it’s all about building some publicity, our biggest problem is that most of our potential readers don’t yet know the book exists. To that end it was wonderful to see a wonderful review of the book in Infoworld from Zack Urlocker, which I can’t resist quoting in full:
May 21, 2009Leading and managing in Silicon Valley
Management and leadership tips from SugarCRM co-founder Jacob Taylor and other Silicon Valley heavyweights
A new book crossed my desk recently co-authored by SugarCRM co-founder and former CTO Jacob Taylor. The book is titled “Leading and Managing in Silicon Valley.” At 450 pages, it’s a heavyweight hardcover book, and it sells for $49. (There’s also a version for the Kindle that costs only $20.)
Despite the serious-sounding title and breadth of topics, it is a very approachable book. Most chapters are 5 to 10 pages in length, and you can just zoom in and read what you need to know at any given time rather than from start to finish. The idea is that the book is intended to provide a road map for an engineer or engineering manager who wants to progress in their career to a CTO or a VP of engineering role. There are sections of the book focused on product definition, project management, managing people, working with executive staff, and practical matters like budgeting and IP issues.
For many engineering managers, this is resource that will be on their desk and referred to whenever they are trying to expand their career. In short, it’s what the authors wished they’d know earlier in their careers, and they are handing down this information to make it easier for the next generation, which I think is pretty admirable. Despite the hefty price tag, the authors aren’t hoping to get rich off this book: They’re donating the money to charity.
We’re also getting nice feedback from other readers, so we hope the book will strike a chord with more and more readers.
