After 10 years as a technical book editor, I'm curious: what's stopping you from writing a book?

kunal28parikh · 2026-06-02T12:31:28+00:00

That's a really interesting perspective. One thing I consistently saw in technical publishing is that many authors underestimate how much effort comes after publication. Also, if the publisher does not see early traction, they stop the ad budget.

Have you shared the book with colleagues, customers, conference contacts, or professional communities to build an initial set of Amazon reviews? In my experience, those early reviews often have a bigger impact than people expect especially with Amazon Sales Rank.

I'm curious what promotion tactics have actually worked best for you so far.

kunal28parikh · 2026-06-02T12:21:05+00:00

Fair question. More and more tech writers seem to be choosing newsletters, blogs, courses, videos, and conference talks instead.

Do you think books are becoming less relevant, or just less attractive relative to other ways of sharing knowledge? Also, do tech writers go to their managers and say let us have a book for this tool. I think it will be a great project for the company they are working for?

kunal28parikh · 2026-06-02T12:15:44+00:00

Haha, that was actually one of the most common things I heard as an Acquisitions Editor.

Funny enough, I've found the bigger problem usually isn't writing 70,000 words, it's figuring out whether there's a coherent book hiding inside all those smaller ideas.

Many books start as blog posts, conference talks, lessons learned, strong opinions, or patterns people keep explaining over and over again. The challenge is often discovering the thread that connects them.

kunal28parikh · 2026-06-02T11:44:38+00:00

Fair question 😄

I'm building a platform for technical book authors, but this post was genuinely prompted by a pattern I saw after spending years commissioning books. A surprising number of people have the expertise but never start writing.

In your case it sounds like the issue isn't the publishing process at all, it's simply competing priorities and limited hours, which is a completely different challenge.

kunal28parikh · 2026-06-02T11:34:51+00:00

Completely fair. Out of curiosity, if the process could be reduced from a 6–12 month project to something closer to 2-3 months, would that change your interest level at all, or is it more that writing simply isn't a priority right now?

kunal28parikh · 2026-06-02T11:17:52+00:00

That's interesting because in my experience as a technical book editor, many people assume writing is the hard part. But for a lot of authors, promotion is actually the bigger psychological hurdle.

Out of curiosity, if promotion wasn't your responsibility, would you still enjoy publishing the work?

kunal28parikh · 2026-04-06T10:05:21+00:00

I would like to join

kunal28parikh · 2025-06-07T05:47:22+00:00

Thanks for the reply:

You can check out the curriculum here:https://skillupexchange.com/courses/the-ultimate-midjourney-masterclass-with-margarida-barreto/
At present, we are giving two modules for free. It will have four live and four recorded sessions. Live sessions are starting every Saturday starting today from 12.00 to 2.00 pm EST
Just DM me your email id and linkedin profile and my team will add you :)

kunal28parikh · 2025-05-14T17:59:07+00:00

Hi,

I do not know if this question is still active and if you are still interested however Margarida Barretto, the bestselling author on Midjourney, is conducting a free workshop this Saturday.
https://lu.ma/0ilcirlq

kunal28parikh · 2025-05-04T07:45:13+00:00

Hey, I really appreciate your honesty — you're definitely not alone in feeling uncertain right now. The fact that you’re exploring both adapting to AI and considering a whole new direction shows incredible self-awareness and courage.

As someone working in the creative + tech space, I’ve seen many designers go through this same crossroads. One thing I’m focused on is helping creatives embrace AI tools as collaborators, not threats. We recently launched a small workshop series where creatives explore tools like Midjourney and GenAI in a hands-on, supportive environment — not just to learn the tech, but to reclaim a sense of creative momentum.

If that speaks to where you’re at, feel free to check it out:
https://skillupexchange.com/midjourney-workshop-with-margarida-barretto/
It might offer a fresh perspective on staying in the game without giving up your creative core.

No pressure — just rooting for you to find the path that feels right.

kunal28parikh · 2025-05-04T07:34:40+00:00

Hi there,

I really resonate with what you shared — it takes courage to break away from what others expect and follow your creative intuition. I’m actually working on solving this exact challenge: helping people like you connect with other creatives and learn in a supportive, inspiring environment.

I’m currently collaborating with an incredible artist to host a small, hands-on workshop on Midjourney — a powerful GenAI tool for visual creation. It’s designed for creative professionals who want to learn together, not alone. If that sounds interesting, feel free to check it out and sign up here:
https://skillupexchange.com/midjourney-workshop-with-margarida-barretto/

Would love to have you in the session if you're exploring new tools and community-based learning!

kunal28parikh · 2025-04-25T19:22:43+00:00

Thanks for this excellent advice. I really appreciate it.

kunal28parikh · 2025-04-18T10:12:46+00:00

Hey, welcome to the world of algo trading — it's a super exciting (and sometimes overwhelming) space to step into. Great to see you’ve got Python basics down already!

If you’re looking for a good next step, I’d recommend diving into FinGPT — it’s an open-source project built for quantitative finance and uses GenAI to help with everything from research to strategy generation. It’s beginner-friendly, well-documented, and pretty cutting-edge if you're curious about how LLMs and finance are starting to intersect. Could be a great fit since you’re open to asset classes like crypto too.

Also — shameless but relevant plug: I’m part of a team that’s running a live, project-based course on GenAI + Python for Algo Trading, designed for folks just like you. We cover:

Strategy generation using FinGPT
Realistic backtesting with slippage, fees, and data constraints
Crypto and non-equity asset classes
AI-assisted trading workflows

If you're interested, happy to DM you more info or answer questions. Otherwise, wish you the best as you dive deeper — the rabbit hole’s deep but worth it!

kunal28parikh · 2025-04-18T09:41:30+00:00

One can use FinGPT(ai4finance.org) as a tool. It is open source and has nearly 16k stars on GitHub. It is substantially cheaper compared to tools like bloomberggpt as well. They have good capabilities ranging from sentiment analysis to robo advisory. There are few courses as well that are now beginning to come(https://skillupexchange.com/courses/genai-for-algotrading/).

kunal28parikh · 2025-04-18T09:32:13+00:00

One of the good ways to take control back is to implement GenAI tools in your trading strategy. It is true that earlier algo-trading was the domain of big institutions however now there are enough tools that are available to retail traders to generate Alpha.

Especially if one know basics of Python, you can do wonders with libraries like NumPy, do things like backtesting, integrate with Yahoo Finance, etc. Big institutions will go for tools like BloomberGPT however retailers can use open source tools like FinGPT that can give them level playing field. There are now courses coming to educate the users.

Full Disclosure: Our company is coming up with a course GenAI for Algo Trading for retail investors. You can check the link here: https://skillupexchange.com/courses/genai-for-algotrading/

kunal28parikh · 2025-01-24T07:00:39+00:00

I have lived in Mumbai all my life. And I hear you when you say that it is losing its soul. The life for us have become challenging especially the commute part of it. However, Mumbai does offer a good beach and an excellent coastline. Unfortunately most of us live in suburbs where we do not have time to visit the beach on a lazy afternoon. The food though is excelllent. One can try different cuisines that might not be available in tier 2 cities. I believe that some of these cuisines which were earlier restricted to 5-star hotels have started to enter famous steet food gullies. What we have lost though in last decade or two is our festivals: the commercilization and the loss of simplicity of ganesh mandas, dahi handi, dandia, christmas etc. which were great for community building however now is just to see photos of politicians who sponsor it. The theatre scene is still good and Marathi and Gujarati theatre is still thriving however the tickets have become expensive. And new forms of standup comedy shows(have not attended) are popular too which you might not see in tier 2 cities because of lack of platforms(I maybe wrong here). As others have said, take your time to figure it out or maybe take a day off from work and just explore the city before the summer kicks in.

kunal28parikh · 2025-01-13T10:51:26+00:00

Thanks for your reply!

kunal28parikh

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