First post
October 1st, 2004 by Steve Pavlina
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I just got the new StevePavlina.com web site up and running today after a marathon HTML/PHP/MySQL session. Whew!
Earlier this week I did a quickie phone interview with Nettie Hartsock, who quoted me in an article titled, Setting Up a Software Development Business. That article includes the very first external link to this new web site and announces my new book-in-progress, The Software Self-Publishing Guide.
Several friends have been pushing me to write such a book for years, but I never really had time to write a complete book until now. I did some initial market research, and from what I can tell, this will likely be the first book of its kind. There are many books on building a software business, but I could find no modern books that really explain the details of how to setup, operate, and grow an independent software business based around selling direct over the internet, starting from scratch with little or no money. My book aims to explain how to go from employed programmer to software entrepreneur, so I think it will appeal to software developers who possess the technical talent to develop their own software but who lack the business and marketing knowledge of how to sell software effectively and build a profitable business around it.
December 10th, 2004 at 3:46 am
[...] re I started writing this entry, I posted a link to the blog of motivational speaker to-be Steven Pavlina. He has a straight-forward writing style and the fact that he has keeps a weblog makes him stand [...]
December 9th, 2004 at 10:00 pm
[...] ational speaker” thing, but Steve Pavlina has some really great articles over at his new weblog. I highly recommend it (even though the site breaks in Firefox) Posted lunch time on 12/9/2004 i [...]
January 26th, 2005 at 10:45 pm
[...] ;active bookmarks” it went downhill from there. First it was just a few blogs, like Steve Pavlina’s, but then I found myself with a whole slew of feeds that I could check daily. Anyway, [...]
February 9th, 2005 at 8:38 am
[...] We need to change that. This is why it’s so great to have people like Curt, and now Steve, working with people on how to rekindle their passions. Because it’s much more then just a passion [...]
October 3rd, 2004 at 9:55 am
First comment!
Glad to see your blog appear, and also glad to hear about your book. Your articles over at Dexterity.com made quite a number of excellent points. I’m looking forward to seeing the book!
Kevin Dangoor
October 6th, 2004 at 11:28 am
Nice to see you started a blog. I have gotten a lot of insight from your articles on Dexterity and am looking forward to your book.
You mentioned that you thought this might be the first book in this area. While I don’t know exactly the contents of your upcoming book, it does sound similar to The Indie Game Development Survival Guide by David R. Michael. He also gets down to specifics of self-publishing via the net. David’s book and yours are the only ones I know of in this space. I thought I’d mention it in case you weren’t aware of it.
October 6th, 2004 at 11:45 am
I’m very familiar with David’s book — I helped David with a peer review of a few of his chapters while he was writing it, and he used a screen shot of one of my games in the book. David’s book is about how to survive as a self-employed indie game developer, and he devotes a lot of pages to product development. The book I’m writing isn’t about making games or even software development. It’s for people who already know how to develop their own software and who want to turn that into a profitable business. It’s heavy into the business, marketing, sales, and optimization aspects. So while David’s book might appeal to novice game developers, my book is meant for experienced software pros who are business novices. There’s certainly some overlap between these two books, but the intended audience and the type of content are very different. A book that’s a closer match to mine would be Dan Poynter’s The Self-Publishing Manual, which is a book written for writers who want to learn how to publish their own books. It doesn’t teach you how to write or what to write — it just focuses entirely on the business side of self-publishing books.
October 6th, 2004 at 4:56 pm
I think that your timing in writing this book is bang on. Maybe I am just biased because it sounds like I could get a lot of useful info out of it. I look forward to when it is available.
October 8th, 2004 at 10:42 am
Wow! Great that you started blogging! [Your blog immediately goes in my Bloglines subscriptions..]
I have read all your articles at Dexterity site and I must say that they have been very useful. Btw, can we put those articles on this site? I am asking because our Corporate Proxy classifies Dexterity.com as Game site and it doesn’t let me read those from Office. [I read and re-read your articles regularly..]
Looking forward to your book and articles,
JD
October 14th, 2004 at 11:05 pm
Hi Steve, good luck on your new blog and new book. I look forward to reading them both.
Thanks,
Gordon Bell
http://www.bellcraft.com
October 15th, 2004 at 8:00 am
Based on other stuff I’ve read from you, I’m sure your book will be very insightful, and hopefully cover some new ground.
-Brad Williams
http://www.gnfsoftware.com