Over the past couple of months I have come across a number of published authors that are doing their second and third books on their own. I have been curious to ask them why. One such person is Joshua Porter. He has a large readership (20k+) at Bokardo.com where he writes about social applications and design. In 2008 Porter wrote Designing for the Social Web for New Riders. The project was successful enough that a second edition is in the works.

I met Porter at IDEA2009 and asked why he wanted to publish his second book under his own banner. One of his answers was a real surprise — he said he felt the publishing process was too fast and he would rather go at his own pace. Apparently some publishers ask authors to submit chapters as they complete them instead of waiting for the entire book to be done. No wonder some books aren’t cohesive! I also asked Porter what had surprised him the most about going it alone. Check out the embedded interview for his answer and more.

P.S. Yes I am a total spaz and uploaded this video as 16:9 instead of 4:3. YouTube is not my friend today. Hopefully the black frame is tolerable.

Look for my interviews with Dave Gray and Louis Rosenfeld later this week.