03-30-2006, 06:51 PM

Hello,

Of the two books I am writing, I have a preview for you all.

(One being The Little Mac Buyer's Guide as previewed here, and the second in the series being the Macs for Switchers Guide)

The Little Mac Buyer's Guide is intended as a small handy book giving advice on buying a Mac, be it your first or another one to add to your existing systems, and covers all Macs from the iMac G3 to present date. It will be updated regularly each year.

It will also discuss Mac OS X and profile each machine in depth, with buying advice brand new or second hand, and typical requirements for typical needs—all in no nonsense plain English.

The preview is of the first few pages plus part of the section on the iBook G4. There is much more to it and there will be changes for sure, plus a proper proof read too before printing.

It will be available as either a spiral bound or normal perfect binding depending on your preference with colour pages here and there.

You can view the preview here: http://www.lilserenity.com/Book.pdf

Comments appreciated, just be aware that the book has a long way to go!

Vicky

03-30-2006, 09:26 PM

Looks very nice so far, I think the way you have ordered the content works well, particularly highlighting the existance of the glossary before going on to all the technical specs.

An idea (although I'm sure you already have it planned) would be to add a selection of case studies of typical types of users and what mac would suit them best. Also perhaps adding a summary to each mac review, like the ibook, saying what kind of user the mac is targeted towards.

03-31-2006, 01:36 AM

Thanks Zeta101 :flower: You will be very glad to hear that all those things are already planned for this book. Actual case studies of Windows users swtching to Mac will come in the 2nd Book I am working on.

The actual pages for each Mac profile start with the specs as seen for the iBook G4; and then after that have a detailed account of the machine and its capabilities, what it is suited for and what it is not suited for.

Thanks again!

Vicky

03-31-2006, 07:23 AM

The book is looking good vicky
few comments though.
1) if its a quick buyers guide then the intro part about the history isnt really needed as you need to be geeks like us to know who the people are :p

2) the CPU part is great, explains stuff how you'd want it to but why not take a typical advert about any machine and explain it that way as most adverts mention FSB and while some people know a little about the CPU and RAM almost no one knows what the FSB is.

3) In the software part you did would the varions of OSX be useful there? A few people always say they run Panther etc rather than 10.3 and i think that photobooth and frontrow thing would confuse people who look at older machines and find its not there.

Overall the book is well presented and shows people what i think they would want to know when thinking about buying a mac. Good luck with it and keep up the hard work!

Oww final thing you might want to add some truth to the "Whats the 1Ghz G4 equivalent to" as that old flame still exists with the PPC stuff

03-31-2006, 02:58 PM

keep up the good work

04-01-2006, 01:03 AM

I think "rhubarb rhubarb" was my favorite part.

But seriously, it looks great. It's very informative and to the point. I love the layout inside the book. I'm not terribly fond of the typeface on the front cover, but everything else looks very well done.

04-01-2006, 05:34 AM

Originally Posted by inflexion

The book is looking good vicky

Thank you :flower:

Originally Posted by inflexion

few comments though.
1) if its a quick buyers guide then the intro part about the history isnt really needed as you need to be geeks like us to know who the people are :p

I fair enough point; and I am in two minds whether to leave it in or not, originally it was placed in as a directly lift from my second book; more as a space filler to get an idea of how big the book may get. After that I thought maybe it does suit it, and then a while later maybe not.. etc. The jury is still out.

Originally Posted by inflexion

2) the CPU part is great, explains stuff how you'd want it to but why not take a typical advert about any machine and explain it that way as most adverts mention FSB and while some people know a little about the CPU and RAM almost no one knows what the FSB is.

Terrific idea. The FSB was due to be explained in the glossary but the anatomy of an advert is a splendid idea. I feel a bit bad using it though as it was your idea! Just to make 100% certain, this is abolutely OK with you? I will make some mock up ones based on what I can find.

I felt is was important to include the FSB specs and other oddities as it may not just be beginners reading the book but seasoned pros wanting a hard copy that reprepsents a buyer's guide. But for the beginners it is important to consider the esoteric parts of a computer to get a much more wholistic idea how a computer performs.

Originally Posted by inflexion

3) In the software part you did would the varions of OSX be useful there? A few people always say they run Panther etc rather than 10.3 and i think that photobooth and frontrow thing would confuse people who look at older machines and find its not there.

The Mac OS X versions have been added; it just hadn't been done yet Sometimes when I write things don't always get placed down in order, I tend to jump around and add things in and so forth. They have been placed under a specific 'Mac OS X Versions'.

Also worth considering is that there will be big box outs containing in depth information such as what Mac OS 9 is, the varying G4 processors for example. Stuff that is 'non essential' but could be very interesting for the user to know.

Originally Posted by inflexion

Overall the book is well presented and shows people what i think they would want to know when thinking about buying a mac. Good luck with it and keep up the hard work!

Thank you and it's a pleasure, I enjoy nothing more than writing and using my Macs! It's about time I put down my knowledge on paper.

The idea stemmed from a chat with my friend who wrote the foreword, John whilst we and some of our friends were down the pub. He had just bought a newish car and said that the Parker's Price Guide (you know the little A5 small books released now and then with car market prices) and the idea came upon me as the conversation lead onwards about one of my girl friend's new iPod and how confused she got over the different models, which were old etc.! The rest as they say is history...

Originally Posted by inflexion

Oww final thing you might want to add some truth to the "Whats the 1Ghz G4 equivalent to" as that old flame still exists with the PPC stuff

That is definitely going in! I have written that section but did not include it here. :flower:

My next task is to set up the website for my publishing 'arm'

Thanks again,

Vicky.

04-01-2006, 05:35 AM

Originally Posted by digital john

keep up the good work

Thank you, it's a pleasure. :flower: It seems since leaving the AppleCentre I have ended up being more of an Apple support peep than I realise. Of course, how I got my current job is a long twisting story related to Apple... But there again, I love it.

Vicky

04-01-2006, 05:42 AM

Originally Posted by Meyvn

I think "rhubarb rhubarb" was my favorite part.

A tip of the hat to my days of doing drama at school :flower: How I loved that, anyways—sadly the rhubarb may be missing from the final print edition!

Originally Posted by Meyvn

But seriously, it looks great. It's very informative and to the point. I love the layout inside the book.

Thank you, I have been tweaking it more and more as time goes by. You will be glad to hear the same layout is used in the second book, Macs for Switchers.

Originally Posted by Meyvn

I'm not terribly fond of the typeface on the front cover, but everything else looks very well done.

I agree with you there, so much so that last night it was changed without prior knowledge that someone else disliked it. Below is a capture of what it looks like now...

Notably the title of the book has changed, I was aware of the similarity to a series of Peachpit's books having very similar names, and when someone else noticed this; I decided it was best to change it but keep the same kind of title... (I couldn't go for 'The Mini Mac Buyer's Guide' as it would make it sound like a 100 page book about the Mac Mini!!)

Vicky

04-01-2006, 01:56 PM

Hey vicky the part i mentioned, go for it! I dont mind one bit.

Anything I mention feel free to take it as your own

04-01-2006, 02:03 PM

I wrote a couple upgrade guides for the G4 & Intel Minis. They are by no means complete, but they may give you a jump-start on info for your book:

Intel Mini upgrade guide

G4 Mini upgrade guide

Good luck!

04-01-2006, 02:07 PM

I'm also in the process of upgrading my G4 Cube and have a blog with a lot of good upgrade information in it. If you have some time, read through it: (i.e. lots of time)

http://mcproject.blogspot.com/

04-07-2006, 05:13 AM

I am steadily making a lot of progress now on the book.

I am slowly also getting a website together for my publishing business.

www.lilserenity.com/sp

04-07-2006, 05:29 AM

Oi Lil!!! What do you think you're doing, writing my book?!?!?!?!?!?

04-07-2006, 05:46 AM

The guide looks great so far! I may just have to pick one up for myself when it gets published.