Friday, March 13, 2009

How "VSTO 3.0 for Office 2007 Programming" book born, a true stroy!



I started my career in Microsoft technologies. I was very much keen on exploring technologies and designing applications. When I joined one of the world’s largest software services and consulting company in 2006, I was asked to explore on Microsoft’s upcoming technology SharePoint. I was just started the training material and practicing the same. And suddenly the client work has been allotted for a few which includes me in that team. After the work has been allotted for each individual in the team, I and my colleague (and a best friend) got to work on VSTO programming for InfoPath 2003 which is part of our client project. But my best friend she was not interested in VSTO work and she feels this is not the right technology for her career and raised a question for me, do you feel comfortable in VSTO? Is it good for your career growth? I said for me technology is secondary, for me I was keen on the quality of the work I do, whatever the technology may be. Few words to mention about my friend as a developer, she was an awesome developer, and any company in this world should be the luckiest company to have her as a resource.

And this is where the spark fired an idea for me to write a book on VSTO, to write book on VSTO and show everyone that technology doesn’t decide your growth it’s just your attitude plays the key role in your life. Writing a book which is fully authored by me is my long-time dream. I was thinking about this from my school days, one day in my life I will write a book. Now I got an idea for my dream, what I need is to start working on that. There is zero support and encouragement in my organization I worked, feel like stuck between office politics. Under performing guys are ruling the project to failure, even the failure doesn't reflect their originality instead they gets appreciation. So I decided to carry on my career in different organization where I can produce my excellence too. So I decided to leave the most liked and loved company in my life.

First I started writing for the publication with more energy and enthusiastic. My first delivery of chapter was on InfoPath. The chapter returned with huge amount of comments and feedback, which actually said to me better stop writing :). But my editor Jonathan Hassell and Tony Campbell was the greatest; who make me thinks get going... Later before a month of release of the book the press came up with one of the best worst news I have heard in my life, eight months of dedication, hard work and how many sleepless nights is washed away from that news. They said we have decided to withdraw from your book agreement. A few days I was upset and I bounce back with a new idea.

Added new ideas and enhanced the content and approached the Europe’s leading technical publisher PackT Publication and get a green signal precede the project. Again started the works get going and finally the book was on store for sale! Thanks to all crew members of PackT Publishing for their dedication and commitment toward the launch of this book.


When I send message to people and friends I got a great appreciation and response from different people. Those messages are refreshing and boosted my confidence to write another book immediately.

Writing a book is a great adventure ... Congratulation for your book ...... very nice cover :) - Ludovic LefortCongratulations! An awesome accomplishment that requires a great deal of focus and sacrifice to execute on. Great job! - Amanda Murphy
Congratulations Vivek. This is a great achievement. Looking forward to seeing your book - soon! - SS AhmedVery nice... i post this in my blog... Congrats!!! - Vladimir MedinaCongratulations Vivek, this is indeed a great achievement! - Cristina Nardini
Congrats Vivek. Way to go! - Suprotim Agarwal
Great Stuff. It's an area waiting to explored. Glad you did it. Looking forward to see more from you :). - Niraj G Bhatt
excellent work Congratulations. - Ajay Pathak
Great Stuff Vivek!! - Amit Bansal
Congratulations – this looks like a great book. - Geetesh Bajaj
Congratulations !! Your hardwork has reaped you this success:):) - Vijayraj vm
Congrats man. Nice selection of subject. - Praveen Nair
Congrats Vivek Wish you follow it up with many more - Shanmuga Sundara Raman
.... more and more... what to say countless...
Thanks to everyone :)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Congratulations Vivek,its an Impeccable Effort,Keep it up.All the best for all your Future Books.

Unknown said...

Excellent book for learning VSTO. Keep up the good work.

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