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Make it Stick

The Audition

So, you wanna write a HEAD FIRST book?

Writing a Head First book is going to be unlike anything you’ve ever written. Head First books rely on a strong sense of narrative,

good graphic design skills, and a knack for popular culture, hipness and edgy humor

(at least that’s our claim). So, before writing a book proposal we ask all potential

Head First authors to do an audition. This little guide describes what is required to do

an audition and provides a quick overview of what makes a book “Head First.” Good

luck and we look forward to seeing your audition.

Diane Altwies, PMP

Q: What do I do for an audition?

A: For the audition you’re going to take a topic and teach it to us in 8-10 pages using Head First style.

Q: Okay, how do I know what “Head First style” is?

A: Good question, the best way is simply to read the Head First books. We suggest you spend a little time with both Head First Java and Head First Design Patterns; if you don’t have these books we’d be happy to send them to you.

We’ll be telling you much more about the Head First secret sauce after you’ve passed an audition, but for now try to get a feel for the format by spending time with the existing books. We’ll also give you some high level guidance on the next page.

Q: Am I supposed to create production-ready pages for my audition? Or, does O’Reilly do the production on these books?

A: Head First authors submit camera-ready files to the printer, so you will need to be comfortable with the graphics and layout that goes into the Head First books. We use InDesign CS by Adobe to design all Head First books.

For the audition you can approximate this style in InDesign, Word, or your favorite text processing program. Try to get close, but don’t kill yourself. For instance, you can put placeholders in your text like “skeptical girl picture here” to approximate the format.

Q: How will my audition be judged?

A: Auditions are reviewed by the editors and series advisors and judged based on whether we think the author can write in the Head First format. This includes such things as: are the characters compelling, is there a strong sense of narrative, are the graphics and humor integral to the material, does the author have a sense of pop culture, and, of course, is the technical content good?

This is, by nature, a subjective evaluation and, like auditioning someone as

a blues singer, either the singer is judged to be blusey or not. That said, we don’t expect potential authors to write in perfect Head Firsty style for the audition, but to indicate they have the skills needed to do so.

Q: What topic do I teach in my audition?

A: All potential authors audition from one of a few topics, whch you’ll find below. If possible choose the topic that is closest to the book you’d like to write, even if that requires a little research on your part.

Q: Is the process iterative? Or is this a one shot deal?

A: It can be either. If we like what we see but there are a few areas we aren’t sure of, we may ask you to take a second pass over the material.

there are noDumb Questions

Teach us about iteration and recursion. What are they? How do they relate? Use any language you like to illustrate.

Teach us about the Pythagorean Theorem. What is it? How does it work? Of what use is it?

Teach us about Podcasting. What is it? How do I receive a podcast? Take us through it. You can assume you are only explaining one set of tools (say, iPodder on OS X).

Okay, here are the audition topics. Choose the topic

that is most appropriate for you. In your 8-10 pages you

may use any of the tools and techniques from the Head

First books. In general you’ll want to have a main “story”

around which you are explaining the topic. As you tell

the story, you’ll also want to use a couple of other Head

First tools such as Sharpen Your Pencil, Brain Powers, or

Fireside Chats to help get the material across.

Audition Topics

So what does it take to learn something? First, you have to get it, then make sure

you don’t forget it. It’s not about pushing facts into your head. Based on the

latest research in cognitive science, neurobiology, and educational psychology,

learning takes a lot more than text on a page. We know what turns your brain on.

Some of the Head First learning principles:

Make it visual. Images are far more memorable than words alone, and

make learning much more effective (up to 89% improvement in recall and

transfer studies). It also makes things more understandable. Put the

words within or near the graphics they relate to, rather than on

the bottom or on another page, and learners will be up to twice as likely

to solve problems related to the content.

Use a conversational and personalized style. In recent studies, students

performed up to 40% better on post-learning tests if the content spoke directly to

the reader, using a first-person, conversational style rather than taking a formal

tone. Tell stories instead of lecturing. Use casual language. Don’t take yourself

too seriously. Which would you pay more attention to: a stimulating dinner party

companion, or a lecture?

Get the learner to think more deeply. In other words, unless

you actively flex your neurons, nothing much happens in your head.

A reader has to be motivated, engaged, curious, and inspired to

solve problems, draw conclusions, and generate new knowledge.

And for that, you need challenges, exercises, and thought-provoking

questions, and activities that involve both sides of the brain,

and multiple senses.

Get—and keep—the reader’s attention. We’ve

all had the “I really want to learn this but I can’t stay awake past

page one” experience. Your brain pays attention to things that

are out of the ordinary, interesting, strange, eye-catching, unexpected.

Learning a new, tough, technical topic doesn’t have to be boring. Your brain will

learn much more quickly if it’s not.

Touch their emotions. We now know that your ability to remember something is largely

dependent on its emotional content. You remember what you care about. You remember when

you feel something. No, we’re not talking heart-wrenching stories about a boy and his dog.

We’re talking emotions like surprise, curiosity, fun, “what the...?” , and the feeling of “I Rule!”

that comes when you solve a puzzle, learn something everybody else thinks is hard, or realize

you know something that “I’m more technical than thou” Bob from engineering doesn’t.

“Head First” books are LEARNING books.

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