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So, I said that I didn’t know if I ever wanted to write a book again. Apparently I lied.

As the image at the top of this post suggests (assuming that you are looking at the blog version and not a feed), I’ve been working on something new for SitePoint – what they are calling ‘The Ultimate HTML Reference’. I couldn’t possibly use the word ‘ultimate’ without getting all terribly uncomfortable and just so darned British and bashful about it. But hey ho, that’s what it’s called, and it has taken enough evenings for it to be getting close to ultimate – and it’s definitely been an ultimate pain the arse to put together! Please, if anyone ever asks me to write a reference book again – that’s to say one where you have a formula to follow and templates to complete rather than writing free-form as you would with a normal book – be sure to stop me signing on the dotted line ;-)

Writing a reference is not an easy task – this has taken about 5 months on and off, mostly late in the evening when my wife is asleep, the dog has (mostly) calmed down and I can concentrate on the task in hand, but only for as long as I can physically stay awake. And you can forget about such frivolities as playing Nintendo Wii! But now that the job is pretty much done, excepting a few minor amendments that may be passed my way to address, it feels pretty good to see the end result on SitePoint.com, all searchable and just waiting for the likes of Google and co to start indexing it. Once the initial rough edges are all smoothed out and all the in-house editing has taken place, it’ll then be printed in (their words) a ‘sexy hardcover’. Yay! A hard-cover author, no more of that second-class ‘trade paperback’ malarkey for me, I tells yer! For the next one I want to gilt edge, embossed and with some kind of fancy lazer-cut emblem on it, no less. Which is fine, because there will be no ‘next one’, or at least not a book of this format (ie, the reference kind).

In recent days, as I’ve been telling people at SXSW Interactive about the work I did on this, I used the analogy of having a child. When a mother has her first child, sure it’s hard work – and for a long time, too – but in most cases once the child arrives, the stresses and hardships get quickly forgotten because the baby is here, so never mind all that. And later, the parents think “Let’s have another child”, conveniently forgetting the hardships they faced before. But before long, the memories come flooding back. And so it was with this book. I’d mentally blanked any of the difficult moments from writing the first book, forgot that it can take over your free time when deadlines come around and technically this was a much more challenging book than the first one. But, like I said, the baby has arrived and I feel a bit like a doting father.

So, please do have a poke around the HTML reference and feel free to add comments (need to be a SitePoint member to add comments to any topic file). But if you feel like leaving a comment here, then that’s all good too.

Now, as I’ve no longer got to write about stuff, I’m going to settle back down and watch a nice film. And it’s bliss!

Having been on sale for just under a year and a half, I recently got the second sales report for my book and it’s done better than I hoped. Sure it’s not a seller in the region of JK Rowling or anything, but the sales figures are pretty respectable for a book of this nature, and people are still buying which is a good sign. However, I did wonder just how big the sales were in a physical sense.

• Would it fill up a bus?
• A double decker?
• Would it fill up the space in my office?
• What about my whole house?

I tried working out the volumes but couldn’t believe the figure that was staring back at me, so I gave up on calculating volumes and assumed I’d made a mistake; instead I went for the old ‘how big would it stretch if … " routine. What I discovered was:

• If I were to stack each and every copy of the book that was sold up until June of this year, one on top of each other, it would reach a height of 393 metres.

So, naturally I then went searching for something that was about that height and discovered that my tower of books would be just 20 metres taller than the Empire State Building (actually the Empire State’s top floor tower – there’s another 230 feet from the top floor to the top of the lightning rod).

Now I just need to go to New York to see for myself what that really means. And as for that JK Rowling, I think hers would basically equal the volume of all of downtown Manhattan!

A lot of people have asked me about how sales of the book are doing. Actually, that’s almost the first question I get asked and, strange though it may seem, I am continually surprised that they are asking this. Perhaps I shouldn’t be. However, what’s more surprising, I think - or at least to the person asking - is my reply to that question, which is invariably:

"Haven’t a clue, and I don’t wanna know either."

Is that weird? I’ll tell you my reasons why: I spent 7 months on the book, desperately trying to get things done to deadline while simultaneously selling up, moving house and beginning wedding plans. I certainly hoped I’d hit the target and that the book would be well received. Certainly the feedback I’ve had right from the beginning has been overwhelmingly positive. However, I was also worried that the last thing the world needs is another book about HTML and CSS, regardless of how well it’s written or how standards-compliant all the advice given is. So, I went by this rule:

Ignorance is bliss.

If I don’t ask how sales are going, I won’t be told, and therefore if sales are not good I won’t start getting all depressed that it was a failed venture and nobody was interested. If I remain blissfully ignorant of that possibility, then I will, I figured, remain optimistic and will continue to do the most I can to promote the book not thinking that I’m not flogging a dead horse. So, since publication I’ve been asked the same question and given the same answer all the time.

Yesterday I received an email from SitePoint which was, among other things, about sales. I’ll quote it here and insert my thoughts as I, well, thought them while reading it through:

"Just thought I’d let you know that your book is doing pretty well in terms of sales … "

Mmm, ‘pretty well’, not ‘really well’ or ‘fantastically well’. Reading on then:

" … from our site right now. Most books that we sell get an initial sales spike when the emails go out and then tail off. Your book, on the other hand, didn’t get that initial sales spike (as we expected pretty much) … "

Yeah, that’s the thing - trying to sell a book that’s aimed at complete novices is difficult to sell to people who already frequent SitePoint.com or subscribe to the newsletter and so on. They know this stuff already. Selling sand to the Arabs, and all that.So I carried on reading:

" … but it’s had much stronger ongoing sales. At the moment, it’s outselling every other book from our site once the spikes are removed. Good job!"

So, I wasn’t asking for sales news, but I’m more than happy to hear this, that’s for sure!

"Early reviews seem good too."

That’s the one thing I’d love to see more of though. I’ve put together a collection of (summarised) reviewsof the book here, but would love to see some more out there in the wild. So, here’s a personal plea: if you read my book and enjoyed it, please do consider putting together a write-up of it. Currently if you search for reviews of the book on Google not a huge amount is turning up. And remember that if you are an Amazon associate you could earn a bit of commision from any sale that results from someone searching for a review, landing on your site and then clicking through to Amazon.

If you would like a copy to do a review on your site, please do drop me a line. I can’t promise to get you a copy (it’s SitePoint’s decision and obviously it’s dependent on your audience/influence etc) but if you don’t ask you definitely don’t get!

Well, I could have, and if you feel like writing a better review than this, then please feel free! But I have to repeat something that Kevin Yank posted at SitePoint today regarding some feedback from a total web newbie. Apologies for the rather long blockquote - I found it difficult to remove any part of it! The emphasis on certain words was added by me.

Now, Jess is studying to teach drama and English, so she could easily have taken the path of least resistance, but as we had just received our office copies of Ian Lloyd’s Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS , I dropped one on her desk and hinted that she might find it interesting reading.

Less than a week later, she shot me an instant message one afternoon with a URL in it and asked me, “What do you think?” Bracing myself for the worst, I clicked through and blinked in astonishment at the green check mark that popped up at the bottom of my browser window. The site validated!

It turns out that Jess enjoyed the book so much, she even included an extra page on her site explaining how she had come by her newfound HTML and CSS skills:

And here’s what my happy customer wrote:

I read the book, which assumed no prior knowledge, and was quickly educated in how to use valid HTML and create snazzy web layouts in CSS, in a way that means I can apply my styling to a number of pages using one style sheet—very handy if I want to change something across all my pages.

The result? You’re looking at it. The fact that my first page I created, my homepage, is Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict is an achievement that very, very few first-time webpage builders can claim. In fact, all my webpages pass both HTML and CSS validation 100%, except for the Blogger code in my blog page. But that’s their problem, and another reason why I would ideally use hand-crafted weblogging technology if I were using blogging with students.

I should say, even though I know I’m pushing the boundary between exposition and just plain bragging - this website took me only FIVE days to make. From opening the book through to writing these closing words. That fact even has my head spinning.

And Kevin continued:

I’m still getting used to my girlfriend preaching the gospel of web standards, but I couldn’t be more proud - not only because Jess did such a professional job on her first-ever web site, but also because Ian has produced a book that can engender that level of enthusiam in building web sites the right way from someone with no prior web design experience.

And with that I’m going to sit back and crack open a nice cold fruit smoothie (well, I am at work - it’s a bit early for a lager!).

Buy The Book Here

This weekend I had my own first sighting of my own book in the wild. This is a truly momentous occasion, one that people who haven’t slogged for months to complete some weighty tome or other will probably never understand. For me, that moment came in Bath (the town, sill – I wouldn’t read in the bath. I mean, that would involve having to wash myself, pff!), specifically in the dungeon level where the books for nerdy people are generally hidden. Here is that moment:

You’ll just have to take my word for it, of course, but check out the ‘old man’s hands’. Yep, that’s my hand alright!

So, while I was enjoying the moment, I glanced around the shelves and spotted one of Rachel’s books, then another. Along the shelf a bit further was Andy’s CSS book, while Stuart’s and Dan’s books were nestling nearby. I could carry on, but you get my drift. And if not, it’s this – in that small section of that bookshop I could count many books, certainly more than I had fingers to count on, written by people who I would call friends, not just mere acquaintances or ‘know-the-name’ type people; there were probably loads more people there who tech edited books whose names are not visible on the front cover too. This got me thinking:

• Is that experience of knowing the other people on the shelves atypical?
• Do people who operate in other spheres of interest not only know the ‘competition’ (not that I think we truly are) but count them as friends?

I guess asking the question here won’t give me the answers, as most readers of this blog (other than family) are likely the very same tech type people whose books I see on the shelves. But if you have an opinion on this, and even better if you are a writer on another topic, please do let me know if what I experienced here (and will no doubt continue to) is typical or a complete anomaly.

This is an email interview that I did for Matt Mickiewicz over at SitePoint - it’s to go into a newsletter that goes out to SitePoint’s various sales reps and distributors. I’m not sure it it’s going to be used anywhere else online, but I thought it would be useful to publish here anyway - tell you a little more about the book I wrote.

What do you think makes your book different from all the other “beginning web design” books on the market? Why?

I can do better than just think that it’s different - when I was at the beginning of the book-writing process, I did my homework and researched the other beginners books. Without exception, when I flicked through those books I kept discovering advice that was outdated or just plain wrong, despite some of them having undergone rewrites (in second and third editions). It was actually quite shocking and made me realise that the SitePoint book was very much needed - a beginners book that taught the right skills from the start, rather than cutting corners for quick results, thereby teaching bad habits that later need to be unlearnt.

Why should beginners worry about tables, CSS or accessibility?

Firstly, because it’s the right thing to do. Although I would argue that they don’t need to worry at all. The worry comes from learning the wrong way at the beginning (see response to previous question!) and then thinking that accommodating these ideas is going to be difficult - and it can be if you are trying retrospectively fix issues. To answer the question point-by-point, though, tables are not needed for layout these days, and by not teaching that method, it will allow beginners to redesign their sites far more easily and reap benefits of having their sites work on a much wider range of devices. CSS, well, it really is the way to add presentation to a website, and I’d be doing a misjustice if I suggested otherwise. Finally, accessibility: in all honesty, I’ve not covered that a huge amount in the book, but have ensured that all the techniques and approaches are accessible, and have provided the reader with more information about the topic so that they can learn at their own pace. It is a big topic in its own right, after all.

Who do you think is the ideal reader for this title?

My mum. Or my sister. Or maybe even yours? Seriously, I had my sister in my mind when I wrote the table of contents. She is a 40-year-old mother of two tearaways, uses the computer for email, browsing the web, a bit of shopping, but is not a techy by any stretch. She’s now a Mac user because she got fed up with virus problems and wants things to just work. When she has difficulty with anything, she asks questions in non-technical ways, and she learns by the same methods. With that in mind, I set out to write a book that would enable her to build a web site without any prior knowledge, without requiring her to go out and buy any new software but to make use of what’s already there (or free to download) and I didn’t try to force too much information in one go. So that was my model reader - and I’m surethere are many others out there like her. Now we’ve just got to stop these people buying the other beginners’ books and read the good stuff!

How much will readers learn from the book? What will they be able to do once they finish reading it? What’s going to be their next step?

From a complete novice, the reader will learn how to use the tools at their disposal to create a small web site that is standards- compliant, accessible, easy to update (via a blog), can be searched by visitors, looks good (particularly if they have some nice images to use) and that others can contribute to (via the blog, also). By the end of the book, the reader will understand the basics, will have put them all to use and will be in an excellent position to further their skills, having already got CSS-layouts, semantic markup and web standards awareness under their belt. In short, they’ll be better set up for all the other excellent intermediate/advanced books out their than they could ever achieve with the other beginners books. I truly believe this!

In this day and age, why would someone want to build a website as opposed to putting up a page on MySpace or starting a blogger.com account, both of which require a lot less knowledge and work?

I will give you an analogy. It’s a car one (something I’ve used before, but hey ho, it works for me!).I have a 30 year old VW van. I bought it in Aus, drove it all around Australia, then kept it, shipped it to UK and am continually making changes to it - a little tweak here, a little fix there. Now, money permitting, I could go out and buy a spangly, jaw-droppingly good split screen camper van, a real show-stopper. But I would not feel any sense of achievement as it would be someone else’s restoration work.

I feel the same about hand-crafting a site vs getting something off the shelf. The off-the-shelf approach is fine for a quick hit - and I won’t deny that for many people that will do just fine - but if you do it yourself you’ll get the result you’re after, have much more control, get a greater sense of achievement and will truly learn a skill that you can put to good use later. Who knows, it could be the way that you earn a crust one day? I don’t know anyone who makes a lot of money by setting up Blogger accounts for friends, but I know a lot of people who make a good earning - more than I do, I am unhappy to report! - by creating web sites for clients that could not possibly be created using a tool such as those you’ve mentioned. They have their place, but sometimes it’s just not enough, know what I mean?

End of the ‘interview’ …

So, if having read that you feel this is the book for you (or mum/sister/brother/whatever), please head on over to SitePoint and order your copy today. Ah go on, I’ll be your best friend!

My book got a mention on Boagworld’s podcast, and I thought I’d transcribe and respond to some of the comments Paul made here:

"It’s called Build Your Own Web Site the Right Way using HTML and CSS. What a nice snappy title! He needs to work on his title a bit."

Yeah, not my choice of title. It is a bit long-winded, but then if it were called "Beginners Guide to Building a Web Site (with Web Standards)" – or some variation on that theme – the very audience that it’s aimed for probably wouldn’t get it. Would the absolute beginner know what web standards are or why they matter? So while I would love to have had a shorter title (e.g. CSS Mastery, DOM Scripting), those titles only really work for those who know a bit about the topic. Or at least that’s my theory as to why SitePoint went for that title. Anyway, Paul continues:

"The book came about because one day he was hanging around in PC World or whatever, as you do if you’re a geek, and he picked up the books about HTML that were on the shelves, dummies guide on how to build web sites and that kind of stuff, and was horrified at the fact that they all taught horrendous ways to build web sites, very old-fashioned, very out-of-date, not very accessible etc [Marcus – ‘ In schools they do as well’] … Yeah, I know, they still teach table-based design … So basically he decided to write a web design book that taught you from absolute basics, from knowing nothing about HTML, CSS or anything else of how to build a web site but doing it the right way, as his snappy title says"

Well, that’s almost right, but I can’t claim to have had the idea for writing the book, to be honest. What happened was that when I had made a start on the early chapters I wanted to check that I was on the right track, so on a weekend shopping trip I did a bit of ad-hoc research … and that’s when I discovered just how badly a book like mine was needed. It basically gave me a lot of encouragement because in the early days of writing the book, despite feeling proud to have been approached about the book deal, I did have a slight feeling of "does the world need another book about HTML?". That very unscientific bit of research in Borders and Waterstones really made me appreciate the importance of getting this book right!

"Apparently it’s an excellent book, [I’m not going to argue with that! - Ian] I haven’t got a copy of it, I haven’t seen it. But I’m always getting asked, y’know, ‘how do I get into web design, how do I learn it?’ It seems like this book is a good place to start."

Paul, you’ve hit the nail on the head there. I realise that it’s difficult for me to get my peers to buy a copy as they won’t learn anything from it, but it is the book that they can reccommend to their friends/colleagues/loved ones safe in the knowledge that they will learn the right way and, at the end of the book, be at a level where they can pick up some of the other excellent web design books out there without feeling that they have to re-educate themselve on the importance of standards, semantics and such like.

I’m thrilled to announce that my book, Build Your Own Website the Right Way Using HTML and CSS, is now out on SitePoint. I received my personal copies today and am really pleased with the end result (it’s surprising how much fun it is to re-read your own work in this format … but it’s a real bummer when you find a typo!).

I’d really appreciate any mention you folks can provide for me - that’s assuming that anyone other than family members reads this blog :-D. If you feel like promoting a book about web standards that you could happily give to your mum and know that she’ll learn the right way, please do link to this page (and if you really want to help promote standards such that Google points people in the right direction, it’d be great if you used words such as beginners’ guide to web standards or similar).

Anyway, that’s my shameless marketing plea over - I really hope you can help in some small way :-)