Books

Books

I have served as author, editor, or project manager of the following books. Clicking a colored link takes you to further information on this site, related information on the site of the book’s publisher, or the appropriate page of an online bookstore. (In the latter cases, you may need the ISBN or title from the following list to search.) Books are listed in chronological order.

Taming the News Media,
ISDN for Dummies,
60 Minute Guide to Java,
60 Minute Guide to Shockwave,
Data Warehousing: Building the Corporate Knowledge Base,
Presenting SoftICE: The Advanced Windows Debugger,
60 Minute Guide to Internet Explorer 3,
Understanding Sybase SQL Server, International Thomson Computer Press
Micrografx FlowCharter 7 for Dummies,
Official Sybase Data Warehousing on the Internet,
Cascading Style Sheets Complete,
Microsoft Works Suite 99 At a Glance, Microsoft Press
Mastering Word 2000 Premium Edition, with Ron Mansfield
Word 2000: 101 Frontline Timesavers, 1999, 
Mastering StarOffice 5.2 for Linux, with David D. Busch, 
Poor Richard’s Internet Recruiting, Top Floor Publishing, 
Poor Richard’s Home and Small Office Networking
Poor Richard’s Internet Marketing and Promotions (Second Edition), Top Floor Publishing, 2001, ISBN 1-930082-00-2
Poor Richard’s Creating eBooks
Poor Richard’s Branding Yourself Online, Top Floor Publishing, 
Web Design Training Course, PTG Interactive (a division of Prentice Hall), 2001; a book/course distributed on CD-ROM and via the Web
Building Robust Linux Platforms: In the Trenches, Gearhead Press (an imprint of John Wiley & Sons), 2001.

Okay, I confess. I’ve lost track of books I’ve authored, managed, and edited since compiling the above list. Suffice it to say that I’ve been responsible for many other book projects on a full-time basis since then. Ask if you need additional details. Meanwhile, here is unsolicited feedback from recent readers and site visitors on both sides of the Atlantic:

 

Thank you for Mastering Word 2000Premium Edition. It’s well researched, comprehensive, and intelligent. I have a dozen Word books, which describe the obvious features. But when I want information about an esoteric feature, they offer only vague generalities or nothing at all. Mastering Word rarely lets me down and often surprises me with its detailed explanations. My partner (who is a sophisticated Word user, but believes himself to be computer illiterate) reads your book with evident pleasure and frequently discovers new, helpful features. This is the first time that he’s actually read a computer book without being compelled to do so.
—Dermod Quirke

 

Jerry, you’re a Word GOD! Thanks.
—Jeff Goldberg

 

Online Reviews

In a past life, I sold 100 software reviews to the former ZiffNet for Prodigy. At two reviews per week, the project contributed to an interesting year. I’ve been under contract to manage, write, and edit a substantial number of online reviews of products related to Microsoft software certification programs.

On a related theme, I’ve also moderated a broad range of online communities since 1986, from a modest PC-based international bulletin board system in the early, bad ol’ days of the modem through CompuServe and AOL to Web communities. And currently I’m editing and tech editing an online coursebook on Web design.

Magazines

Prior to 1990, when in a 12-month period I moved from my first serious attempt at professional freelance writing to a full-time career, I sold occasional stories as an avocation. Since then, my sales have approached a thousand magazine manuscripts in the US, the UK, Australia, and Canada. I’ve served as International Editor on the mastheads of periodicals in the UK and Australia. One of those positions included editing the monthly, 9,000-word international section.

Since 1993, my magazine sales have been almost exclusively to major publications (about 100 for the US edition of PC Magazine). More recently, I’ve complemented my work for traditional computer publications to cover other areas of technology. Over the years, I’ve served as columnist, feature writer, reviewer, editor, and managing editor. Would you like to see writing samples?