Murat Yilmaz is the author of our recently published OpenX Ad Server: Beginner's Guide which helps you in building and maintaining professional advertising solutions for your web sites with OpenX Ad Server.
Murat Yilmaz is a software developer and online entrepreneur who lives in Moscow. He has over 10 years of experience in different IT fields including development of web-driven solutions, databases, and OLAP systems. He has worked at various international companies in Istanbul (Turkey), Anchorage (Alaska), and Moscow (Russia) as a consultant. He currently runs his own blog and online advertising network. He holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Marmara University at Istanbul.
He spends his free time playing progressive rock songs on a guitar and enjoys writing for his gadgets and technology blog at http://www.vubx.com
Packt: Your book is published now. How is the feeling of being a published author?
Murat: It is great feeling! I am very happy! Its great to see my book being available in so many bookstores worldwide. It feels so good to hold it in hands. Knowing the fact that my book on this very popular subject, OpenX, will be read by thousands and will help people in increasing the efficiency of their online businesses makes me proud of myself. In brief, this is a reward for years of knowledge and experience..
Packt: What benefits did writing a book bring to your specialist area?
Murat: Obviously, it is a great contribution to a person's professional career. After the publication of the book, I have got many paid projects, which include things from simple configuration, management of an ad inventory to customized coding of OpenX environment.
It projects my profile as an OpenX expert in the industry.
Packt: Our authors usually have full-time jobs whilst writing for us. Was this the case for you and how did you approach managing your time?
Murat: I own my own network of websites, blogs and earn my living solely by online advertising and affiliate network income which is generated by these sites. Apart from these, I take up coding tasks time to time. So, I don't have a full time job and was very flexible while writing the book. This position allowed me to dedicate enough time for the book. At times, I had to ignore my websites a bit to write difficult chapters.
Packt: Whilst writing your book, did you find that it overshadowed personal life in any way? How did you deal with this?
Murat: The process of writing the book with full concentration was full of enjoyment. At times, I declined my wife's offer to watch new episodes of our favourite shows such as Lost or Desperate Housewives. It did not overshadow my life at all! The process of writing a book filled new colours in our lives. Overall, it was a unique experience.
Packt: Do you have any advice for other authors who may be interested in writing for Packt, but are still unsure?
Murat: If a potential author believes that her/his subject knowledge and skills on a particular subject are good, there is no reason to be scared. Packt’s team provides full support to the author. The key is to provide high quality content which will really help people to do things and solve their problems.
As you write your first few chapters you will notice that your writing abilities keep on improving. Self-confidence helps you fight the fears.
Packt: Do you have any tips for other authors, or tricks that you learnt whilst writing, that you'd like to share?
Murat: I would suggest writing small notes whenever a new idea comes before it flies away! Second tip is about trying to follow the draft chapters from the reader's point of view. The chapter should build from simple to more advance step by step while maintaining the reader's interest intact! Finally, I first placed all screenshots, diagrams to word file which I would need in the chapter and then wrote the content under them. It is easier to manage and concentrate on writing.
Packt: How did you find the overall experience of writing your book for Packt?
Murat: Packt is the place where highly qualified employees really enjoy their jobs with common aim to create a perfect book with the author. Besides the professionalism, I have seen encouragement, friendship and motivation here.
Packt: During the writing process, did you come across any issues/ difficulties that affected your writing and how did you overcome these?
Murat: At first, I had difficulties about arranging layout and correct styles in Word file. Also, I had issues with writing the chapter contents in a logical, developmental way. Development and technical editors identified such issues and provided very useful comments to correct them.
Packt: Was there anything interesting that happened during the writing of the book?
Murat: Writing a book also requires extensive search on the topic. I have felt that my knowledge on OpenX has increased even more and I noticed the details which I had missed before.
Packt: How did Packt’s Acquisition Editors help you - what kind of things did they help you with and how did they support you throughout the writing process?
Murat: First of all, they show how to write a nicely organized table of contents and bring new suggestions for the content. By brainstorming, we created a final table of contents which clearly reflected what the book will look like at the end. My questions on content development also were replied by Packt specialists in detail, very swiftly.
Packt: What projects, if any, are you working on at the moment?
Murat: I am currently authoring my second beginner's guide book for Packt. It is about one of the most popular shopping cart solutions, OpenCart. I continue to develop my websites both in SEO and marketing sides. Besides, I currently write a custom CMS in .Net platform for a famous French furniture company, Roche Bobois Moscow branch.
I have a future plan of offering a book to Packt about developing database driven applications using latest .Net technology with full source code. I believe that it will be very useful for .net developers who need to see the codes, database design of a complete database driven desktop solution.
Comments