Announcing the Open Source Series at Pragmatic Bookshelf

Want to learn (or help others learn) more about Open Source? The Pragmatic Bookshelf has you covered. Starting today, Pragmatic kicks off a new series dedicated to practical books that will help you understand and get more done with open source. I’ve agreed to be series editor (think creative director + subject matter expert), which means that after years of being an author and technical advisor for them, I finally have an official side gig as a part of the Pragmatic family!

So far there are two books in the series:

• Forge Your Future with Open Source, by yours truly
• Program Management for Open Source Projects, by Ben Cotton

And there are two more on the way:

• My next book (still a work in progress)
• A super secret title I can’t share yet 😉

Even if we added no more titles, Pragmatic is already the go-to source for modern, approachable, and practical open source content, but we’re not stopping here. There’s still a lot of open source knowledge we can bring to the world.

What about open source license compliance? FOSS supply chain management? Security? Community building? Accessibility and design for FOSS projects? Managing FOSS documentation for ease of translation and contribution? What even is InnerSource? These are just a few of the topics that come up all the time in my conversations with people. Undoubtedly you know of more. I want to hear them. Bring us your book pitches and become a part of the Prag family! There are plenty of good reasons to do so:

• “Pragmatic” is more than a name. We’re fanatical about creating books that people can actually use.
• We are utterly uncompromising on quality. You and your book will be amazing (with help from our legit friendly and often hilarious editors).
• All of our books are DRM-free. The people who buy your book will own it. Forever.
• Prag cares so much about doing the right thing, it formed an ethics panel to help it answer those tough questions that come up while doing business.
• Our authors get deals from our partners. For instance, right now Prag authors get a 15% discount on certifications from the Linux Professional Institute.
• We’re true partners with our authors, even down to the profits. Publisher and author each get 42% of the royalties from your book, with the remaining percent split across the various editors who’ll work with you. You’re not going to find another tech publisher who respects authors in this way.

If you have an idea for a book, or you want to learn more before pitching an idea, send it to my Shiny! New! Pragmatic! email address: vmb at the Prag domain (@pragprog.com). I’m happy to have a chat!

(please never use this email to reach me for anything other than Prag business; I won’t be mad but I will be very, very disappointed in you)