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Congratulations, Kevin. As someone who actually PURCHASED the book (OK…I didn’t purchase it, but my company did…), I highly recommend this book to anyone in corporate Web design or anyone who deals with corporate Web design.

The book does a fantastic job of covering the things that are important in real world Web sites.

BUY IT. NOW.

Oops! I’m very sorry, Kevin. To be honest, I’m only half-way through my review copy. So how about this? How about I post a Part I Review this weekend (in which I’ll Twitter/Pownce, etc it as well) for my impressions so far. Then, I’ll do Part II when I finish. Two posts spread apart (hey, a series!) might be better anyway. I’ll probably do a third down the road where I give the book away to a small business owner. Some kind of mini-contest.

It’s my fault that I’ve let other things get in the way. And I actually have had a lot of thoughts about it. One thing, real quick, has to do with the marketing of it (which probably has to do with it’s less than expected sales). In fact, if it isn’t too late can we recommend that the title get changed and the cover? It makes it sound like a geek book (which is where I see it resting at my local B&N) and it should actually be in the more general tech books, or even the entrepreneur section for small business owners. “A Business Owner’s Guide to Having a Modern Website”.. something like that. Get it away from the XHTML/CSS books.

And no, I don’t think you can wear out it’s welcome by re-tooting your own horn.

Congrats on the 2nd Printing and don’t get discouraged. You’ll be happy to know I just forced a friend to buy your TextPattern book this week (after getting 10 emails in a row from him about what is a section vs. what is a page, etc.). I told him if he didn’t buy it that day on the way from his work, that I was going to start marking his emails as spam. He sent me the Amazon receipt about two hours later… ha ha.

Boy, I hate this javascript thing copying my comment as I type below. Slows me down because I leave it in the dust (I type about 90wpm). Weird. Never seen that before anywhere until now. Just my two cents worth.

Lawrence — no worries on the review. I just get frustrated because it IS a good book and I know almost anyone touching business websites could benefit from it — especially clients, believe it or not.

Which brings me to your second point. Marketing. I believe in the title, but I do not believe in the marketing behind it. I have driven almost all of the publicity myself (even managed to get into Inc magazine by myself), because my publisher just lumped it into the CSS section even though I told them it was more about marketing tactics and even website strategy (gasp!), NOT ABOUT DEVELOPMENT. Sadly, they did not really listen, and while vastly inferior books of the same flavor get more visibility, mine kind of sits on the side like the nerd at the prom, waiting for someone to take a chance on them.

Honestly, I started writing the book for web designers. But when I finished it, it was written for small business owners. But that voice and direction has just not carried over in terms of sales.

The book sounds great Kevin but my main question is would this be a book for me as a web designer or better as something I should give to new clients as an aid to help them understand how the web can work for them. Is it more techinical or visual in nature? Either way I’ll pick up a copy but was wondering if it is something I should consider stocking up on and giving to numerous clients. Thanks!

Daniel — I think it works well for small to medium size business owners and entrepreneurs. It really provides a lot of advice on how to service the audience; the scenario may exist where you give the client the book, and they come back to you asking you to implement a certain feature or bit of content they saw in the book and think will work for them.

Well Kevin, as I said when requested a chapter I didn’t even know this book existed. But you’ll be happy to know that while not even half through the chapter I ordered a copy. Can’t wait.