Hello everyone. As we are closing in on the end of 2013, I wanted to update everyone on the status of my new book Mission Critical SQL Server which you can find all of the information about here. If you haven’t figured it out, the book is not done. My hope was to have everything done by the end of this calendar year (2013). I put this on the order page which I will update in the next few days:

NOTE THAT THIS IS A PREORDER. THE BOOK WILL BE DELIVERED LATER IN 2013 2014.

I could sit here and make 1,000,000 excuses like nearly two months straight on the road from mid-October to mid-December (Charlotte for PASS Summit 2013, Australia, Seattle, Washington D.C., and Chicago for example), customer work, and so on, but the reality is that doesn’t matter to you. You want the book especially if you preordered. I truly am sorry it’s not done, but believe me when I say my intentions were paved with gold. The truth is I need to sleep and eat and at times, not think about SQL Server. You may not think so, but I find it incredibly difficult to write when you’ve just spent 8 hours delivering training. My brain needs a break. That said, things are back on track and I’m in the final stages of finishing another chapter which will be uploaded for those who purchased the Alpha content, with many more started or in flux and will be delivered over the next month or two. The book is not dead, it’s very much alive and well.

What I am now shooting for is to be content complete by about mid-February and then things will progress from there. Remember that it’s not just as simple as me writing; I have reviewers and then there’s incorporating comments and editing. Finally, I need to take all of the final raw product and make it pretty (indexing, production ready, etc.). I’m shooting for late Q1 of 2014 as a new target date. It may be slightly later than that but I don’t anticipate it being outside of that scope. I’m gunning hard for it. Self publishing is not easy, folks. The first one is always the learning curve and I’m in the first speedbump phase.

There is some upside to all of this: you’ll get more Windows Server 2012 R2 content and depending on when SQL Server 2014 releases, that will be the first set of updates (assuming you subscribed to them) post-RTM. It feels weird saying RTM in context of a book, but that’s what it is: a milestone.

I also realize that those of you who were early adopters and bought the updates or Alpha content to date may be a bit disappointed. I know that, and for that I apologize. When you see the Alpha content I hope you’ll be pleased. As for those who purchased the updates, don’t worry. I’ll take care of you. You’ll see an e-mail from me soon if you purchased that option.

So that’s the update. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come.

UPDATE 7/2014 – see https://sqlha.com/updates-new-website-where-is-the-book-blogging-training-mvp-status-and-more/