Behind the Book: Oracle Database 11g R2 Performance Tuning Cookbook

The intial idea for the book is created by the Acquisition Editor, Dhwani Devater:

“For this book things started the other way round (instead of sourcing an idea and then finding an author) – Ciro our author was interested in writing a book, and discussed this with me while reviewing a previous book for us – and that is how the ball was set rolling!  The book had to be about Oracle Database Performance Tuning, as Ciro has extensive experience around this topic, and with immense hands-on experience I was certain he woud write an expert level book.” Dhwani, Acquisition Editor

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“The choice of writing something on Oracle database performance was obvious because I have worked on Oracle databases since 1998, and since then I am the guy who solves performance problems. 

The Cookbook* format (suggested by Dhwani) also makes the book accessible to DBAs and developers without a deep understanding of the Oracle database architecture.” Ciro Fiorillo, Author

*Cookbook – a collection of IT technology recipes

Following the creation of the idea Dhwani then worked with Ciro to outline their idea in the form of a Book Proposal, which would need to be approved by the AE Team* before the book can go into development:

“It was a really quick process, and we had the proposal ready in no time – I did my research and Ciro advised me on technical details such as the book’s aim and the nature of competing titles” Dhwani

*The AE Team – the other Acquisition Editors working with Enterprise books

Following approval by the rest of the Packt Enterprise AE Team, based on her proposal, Dhwani starts working on the initial chapters of the book with the author:

“I sent some sample cookbooks to Ciro for reference so that the writing process would be smooth.  Having worked on so many Cookbooks I have observed that authors find it difficult at first to get into the flow of the Cookbook format, but Ciro has a clear view about what he is doing and is very communicative, when he started writing he enquired about the Cookbook protocals and raised his concerns, this will save time later” Dhwani

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“When I saw the first chapter I was sure Ciro was on the right track.  As usual, the first chapter required a few necessary modifications (which I fedback to Ciro), but for a first chapter it was a very good write up and Ciro had put in alot of effort to make it perfect” Dhwani

“The most difficult chapter to write was the first because I needed to find a way to transfer my ideas into a recipe format, but after the first two or three chapters, thanks to  editorial’s comments, the writing process became much faster, and the recipes ran smoothly” Ciro Fiorillo

The image for the book cover has now been chosen by James Lumsden, the Enterprise Publisher, from Packt’s Image Bank. 

It’s an image of Pennyback Bridge in Austin, Texas, from photographer Stanford Moore – who also provided the cover image for Oracle Identity Access Manager 11g for Administrators.

The image has been passed to Geetanjali Sawant from the Products Team who will create the RAW book cover image, ahead of the book entering the RAW Programme.

Click here for further information on RAW

With the first few chapters written, and passing Dhwani’s strict standards, the book is now ready to be entered into the RAW Programme*.  To enter the book into the programme, Dhwani and the author work together to create a Title Information Sheet (TIS) detailing the content to be included in the Book page on the PacktPub website.

“Writing the TIS was easy, as a lot of detail had gone into the proposal and outline.  The TIS however needs to be more detailed and SEO friendly, Ciro gave some good content, I structured the information into relevant sections and edited some bits – then it was ready to roll” Dhwani

*RAW books allow customers to read books as they’re written, with the downloaded eBook updating as new chapters are submitted so when the book is completed you receive the full finished book

Now Dhwani has created the TIS – Archana Manjrekar, from the Products Team can use this as a basis to create the Book Page on the PacktPub website.

She will also correspond with Dhwani to upload the book’s chapters to the website as they’re completed – so customers will receive updates to their downloaded RAW eBook – reading as its written.

“The announcement of this book and the creation of the Book Page went smoothly, with everyone working to ensure that the RAW book came out on target.  The chapters for this book have been on time so far and are published on the site as soon as they’re received” Archana, Product Executive

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The Book Page is now complete and the Oracle Database 11g R2 Performance Tuning Cookbook is now available for sale in RAW format – click here to view the book page

The Marketing Team now set to work letting people know the book is available in RAW Format

“Now the book is available for sale, the Direct Marketing team immediately announced it on our Facebook and Twitter pages.  Following this we advertised the RAW book on our homepage – giving the book some much needed visibility” Damayanti, Direct Marketing Team Leader

“We’ve just published a blog post on the Packt site announcing the book’s availability in RAW format.  Plus in order to announce the arrival of this, and nine other new RAW books, Packt is celebrating a RAW Fortnight – providing people with further information on the RAW books via newsletters etc. and entering everyone who purchases a RAW book (during these two weeks) into a prize draw to win a PacktLib subscription” Suzanne, Marketing Executive

Now the first chapters have been written and Dhwani is happy with the book’s progress it’s passed to a Development Editor who will oversee the book’s progress from here on in.

“As soon as I got the list to select books entering development, without wasting any time I chose the Oracle Database 11g Performance Tuning Cookbook as I have always been fascinated by the Performance Tuning aspect of the Oracle Database with it being one of the most important topics” Kartikey Pandey, Development Editor

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“My job as a Development Editor involves working with the author Ciro – checking and accepting the drafted chapters, sending them to the reviewers and preparing the rewrites.  The Technical Reviewers – Asif and Advait – are really helping us improve the content.  They are experts in the Oracle Database field and their feedback is invaluable, their reviews not only help Ciro improve the quality during rewrites, but  provide options and consistency to the content, be it technical or not technical” Kartikey

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News Update: As a star performer Kartikey has just been promoted to Acquisition Editor, and Pallavi Iyenger has now taken over the role of Development Editor for the book

The first few orders for the book in RAW format have started coming in!

The first official customer for this book is Kathy Lenon from Tempe, Arizona who purchased it citing “the level of detail and clarity of explanations will definately be an advantage to me”

Have you purchased this book?  Let us know what you think

The next installment in the story Behind the Book will be uploaded shortly…