Once available via Amazon, I’ll remove the print version from Lulu.com.  The self-publishing market is a bit confusing to navigate as a newbie - but I just received a proof copy of the book printed by Amazon’s print-on-demand service CreateSpace and the quality of the screen captures is much better than the Lulu version.

From a financial perspective Lulu’s take is smaller, but I’m hoping the Amazon volume will be greater to make up for it.

I’ve submitted the book for conversion via Lulu.com and that process is said to take 4-6 weeks.  The book also goes against most of the their guidelines for ePub conversion which essentially seemed to boil down to “use one font, as little formatting as possible, with no illustrations”.  So I won’t be surprised if they came back with additional costs or time needed for the conversion.

The print version of the book is now available for purchase through Lulu.com.

Next up - the ePub version.

It’s an odd thing to finally hold a copy of something you’ve worked on for so many hours. The book is quite a bit thicker than I was expecting, which might be due to the spiral binding.  It’s thicker than other similar size books I have that are 50-60 pages longer.

The Scott Thigpen covers look great, with eye-catching colors and whimsical feel that I hope make this book stand out a bit from other tech books:

The interior of the book worked out well with margins, headers and footers, and page numbers all lining up correctly within the format:

Initially I liked the spiral binding, but as I moved around with the book I started to notice that it feels a bit more loosey-goosey than I prefer.  I think there are just too many pages and I’m concerned about the longevity of the covers. The spiral binding also adds cost to each book, and as I’m finding out, limits my options for distribution through channels like Amazon.

I’m also seeing some issues with the quality of the screen captures, and have contacted Lulu about it.  I’ve printed lots of material through them over the past 2+ years and haven’t seen what I’m seeing in this copy, so am hoping it was just an off day.  However, I may need to re-work some of the screen captures to add some contrast to them for a better result.

So - I’ll need to take another stab at it. I still hope to have the print version available by the end of August, but wanted to let you all know where things were at.

This is the revised version of the EE 1 book available here on Train-ee for over two and a half years, now updated and expanded for ExpressionEngine 2.

What’s Changed?
This rewrite effort was much more than simply swapping out EE 1’s “weblog” for EE 2’s “channel”, we also:

• Split up some longer chapters for tighter and more focused content
• Filled in some existing content areas that were okay on the “how” but not so much on the “why”
• Reworked how templates got chunked up to both take advantage of EE 2’s Snippets and for simpler parent templates
• Added details on how to work with EE 2’s new File Manager
• Added troubleshooting tips to each chapter
• Added a chapter on 404 Management
• Added a chapter on Improving Performance
• Added a chapter on Configuring EE for Client Access
• Added a bonus chapter on Extending EE with Matrix
• Had the contents reviewed by some fellow ExpressionEngine folks (see below)
• Added a foreword by Leslie Camacho, President of EllisLab
• Finessed the book layout with a better table of contents, headers and footers, etc.
• Resized the book to the “Crown Quarto” size of 7.5” by 9.5” to fit better with existing tech books
• Added professionally-illustrated covers

Many Thanks To
The book has its own acknowledgment section with specifics, but I still want to thank the following folks for helping birth this baby::

• MsBoyink, Love of my Life
• Leslie Camacho, President
  EllisLab, Inc
  http://www.ellislab.com
• Scott Thigpen, Illustrator
  Thigpen Designs
  http://www.sthig.com
• Paul Burton, Creative Director/Principal
  16toads Design, LLC
  http://www.16toads.com
• Jenn Lukas, Interactive Development Director
  Happy Cog Studios
  http://jennlukas.com
• Emily Lewis, Emily Lewis Design, LLC
  http://emilylewisdesign.com
  
• Marcus Neto, Creative Director
  Blue Fish Design Studio, LLC
  http://bluefishdesignstudio.com
• Steven Grant, ExpressionEngine Developer
  Digital Evangelist
  http://digitalevangelist.net

Other Versions?
Yes, I will be making the book available in both print and ePub forms.  Print will be first, and ePub last as there is a cost for the conversion to the ePub format.  This cost will be incurred with each revision of the book, so I plan to hold off for a little while to see if any significant errata are reported before incurring that conversion cost.

Each version will be a separate product - so purchase the version you’ll use the most.

Need a Link?
The .PDF version of the book is available for immediate purchase here on Train-ee.com.

Enjoy!

Another Train-ee ExpressionEngine class wrapped up this past week with students from Texas, DC, and Florida.  I’ve posted a few photos from the class on Flickr.

This class was also notable in that it marked the end of public EE 1 classes from Train-ee.  Since ExpressionEngine 2 is now a released product the EE 1 classes will be available on-demand only.

Stay tuned for updates to the Train-ee offerings!

Judging from the publish date of the entry detailing the book it’s been available since January of 2008 - so it’s had a good run.  It was the first book on the market dedicated solely to ExpressionEngine and based on the sales and feedback has helped hundreds of people lower the learning curve to EE.

The digital version of the book and the related companion files can be downloaded from the books page here on Train-ee.

Thanks to some warm April weather the tulips didn’t quite make it the whole week.  Nonetheless we brought a new round of webbies up to speed on ExpressionEngine with 4 days of classroom training, great food, and lots of tecchie-talk. 

Some photos from the week are now on Flickr.

If you find yourself in the place of needing to learn EE quickly you can either catch Train-ee at the EE Conference, or sign up for the next 4-day class back here in Holland, MI in July.

The Dogwoods are in bloom, the tulips are out, and we’re ready for you in the second happiest city in the US.  We’ll have four days of EE learning, great meals, 1:1 time to look at your projects, and great people to network and learn with.

Our class has had rave reviews from past students - what are you waiting for? ;)

Register Now via IdeaFoundry (our training partner).

If you have trouble playing the video it’s also on Flickr.

No worries if you missed the class - you can always register for ExpressionEngine in Bloom happening in West Michigan next May.