# How Not To Write a Technical Book, Epilogue **URL:** \ **Category:** blog\ **Created:** [August 20, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488 "2007-08-20T00:00:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1

**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/user_avatar/discourse.codinghorror.com/codinghorror/32/36371_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/1 "2007-08-20T00:00:00Z")

I arrived at work today to find this package. It's from one "C. Petzold", [whoever the heck that is](http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000427.html). * * * This is a companion discussion topic for the original blog entry at: [http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/08/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue.html](http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/08/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue.html) ---

**Author:** ![Blaine](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/b/51bf81/32.png) [@Blaine](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Blaine)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/2 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

Guy has an awesome sense of humour. ---

**Author:** ![Ryan](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Ryan](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/3 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

Holy crap Charles Petzold lives in my zip code 3 blocks from me. ---

**Author:** ![Kevin\_Dente](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/k/9fc29f/32.png) [@Kevin\_Dente](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Kevin_Dente)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/4 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

I think your “famous blogger” T-Shirt is officially no longer a joke. 🙂 ---

**Author:** ![Nate](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/n/e95f7d/32.png) [@Nate](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Nate)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/5 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

Kudus to Mr. Petzold for his great attitude! Jeff, you might want to consider blurring out his mailing address - in case that happens to be his HOME address or something. ---

**Author:** ![Edlin](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/e/9de053/32.png) [@Edlin](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Edlin)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/6 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

That was awfully nice of him after you so callously insulted his last book. 🙂 Once you’ve finished the book, tell us how you like it! I’m curious to see if your suggestions improved his work. ---

**Author:** ![Geoff](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Geoff](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Geoff)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/7 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

Jeff, Was it wise to publish his mailing address? I’m not sure I want to send you any mail now… Geoffrey ---

**Author:** ![squidbot](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@squidbot](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/squidbot)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/8 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

Petzold is a class act indeed! And I still prefer his books to other Windows tutorials, colored or not 🙂 ---

**Author:** ![BG119](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/b/71c47a/32.png) [@BG119](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/BG119)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/9 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

It’s all to easy to forget the incredible amount of personal effort that goes into making a technical manual such as this by an author. Truly mind boggling… I can imagine that after all the blood, sweat, and tears they put into their work that they’d be much more defensive. It’s great to see that he’s able to shoulder that criticism and win the critic over the old fashioned way. Kudos. ---

**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/user_avatar/discourse.codinghorror.com/codinghorror/32/36371_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/10 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

Was it wise to publish his mailing address? FWIW, he’s listed in the phone book under that address, so I don’t think it’s privileged information… [http://www.google.com/search?q=charles+petzold+%22new+york%2C+ny%22](http://www.google.com/search?q=charles+petzold+%22new+york%2C+ny%22) ---

**Author:** ![hacktick](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/h/58f4c7/32.png) [@hacktick](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/hacktick)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/12 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

jeff - could you please write down what c.p. wrote on the last pic? i can 't decipher what’s written there -.- ---

**Author:** ![Haacked](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/h/0ea827/32.png) [@Haacked](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Haacked)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/13 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

Hey Petzold, I think your book sucks too. Email me for my mailing address. 😉 ---

**Author:** ![Andrew](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Andrew](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Andrew)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/14 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

Pardon the stupid question: Is this book about 3D dev on Silverlight? ---

**Author:** ![JosephC](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@JosephC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/JosephC)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/15 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

Kudos to CP. I can’t wait to add that WPF book to my growing collection. ---

**Author:** ![transcriber](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@transcriber](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/transcriber)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/16 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

hacktick, it reads: Jeff, Hope you enjoy [underlined]this[/u] one! (And I hope I didn’t make too many coding [underlined]or[/u] literary horrors.) Charles Petzold ---

thank you, transcriber 😉 ---

**Author:** ![Allied](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/a/e9a140/32.png) [@Allied](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Allied)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/18 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

@Andrew This book is about WPF 3D programming. Silverlight uses a subset of WPF. It is very close to what you want, but not EXACTLY, as I’m not sure if Silverlight even supports 3D, and if it does, may not support everything in this book. I’m sure you can look it up somewhere. ---

**Author:** ![Dan\_F](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@Dan\_F](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/Dan_F)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/19 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

If it sucks I’m sure you could make a packet on ebay 🙂 Good job Mr Petzold, thats awesome. ---

**Author:** ![CarlM](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@CarlM](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/CarlM)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/20 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

Classy! ---

**Author:** ![OleE](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/o/e79b87/32.png) [@OleE](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/OleE)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488/21 "2007-08-21T00:00:00Z")

Charles Petzold is a god. A minor god, but a god. And to receive an actual signed copy of his book, unprompted, makes you a protogod. Wow. [Next page](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/how-not-to-write-a-technical-book-epilogue/488.md?page=2)