Learn how to use Asciidoctor and Gradle to write a book that can be published as HTML, PDF, EPUB and MOBI. This session leverages my "infoq-mini-book" project on GitHub and shows how you can easily write a short technical book and have it published by InfoQ.

1. Writing an InfoQ Mini-Book
with Asciidoctor
Brought to you by Matt Raible and Asciidoctor

2. Writing a book is hard
• It’s easy enough coming up with an idea, but writing is hard
• It’s easy enough to write it in Word (or Google Docs), right?
• Copying and pasting code and images into Google Docs is easy
• Updating them is not
• As writers, we’re often limited by our tools
• Asciidoctor to the rescue!
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3. What is Asciidoctor?

4. Asciidoctor
• An open source implementation of AsciiDoc in Ruby
• A fast text processor & publishing toolchain for converting AsciiDoc to
HTML5, DocBook & more
• Write in plain text, import your code and images
• Code review and copy edit using Git and code reviews
• Publish as HTML, PDF, EBUB, MOBI and printed books
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5. The Best Part?

6. My Asciidoctor Experience
• End of 2015: Had a goal to write a JHipster Mini-Book for InfoQ
• Chose Asciidoctor because I wanted it to be like an open source project
• Used asciidoctor-to-all-example as a starting point
• Used JIRA Cloud to create tasks, organize sprints and track progress
• Used Bitbucket to host the book’s source control in Git
• Used IntelliJ IDEA to write, and Browsersync to see changes immediately
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7. Asciidoctor @ InfoQ
• InfoQ recommended I use Word or Google Docs
• Agreed to Asciidoctor, but expect it be most expensive mini-book
• Figured it out, with a great team
• Extracted template to infoq-mini-book
• Dan Allen and AsciidocFX were a big help
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8. Writing Asciidoctor

9. Developing an InfoQ Mini-Book
• git clone https://github.com/mraible/infoq-mini-
book
• Run gradlew followed by gradlew watch
• Install Node.js and run npm install
• Run grunt
• Use IntelliJ IDEA, Atom, Sublime Text or AsciidocFX to edit
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10. InfoQ Editing Process
• Share your Git repository with your editor
• Editor creates pull requests by section
• Add comments and collaborate on changes
• Accept pull request and merge
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11. InfoQ Publishing Process
• Install KindleGen for MOBI
• Create HTML, PDF, EPUB and MOBI by running build.sh
• asciidoctor-pdf-extensions.rb customizes PDF output
• Recent improvements by @mojavelinux allow for Lulu printing
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12. Interested in Writing?
• Talk to us! matt@raibledesigns.com or minibooks@infoq.com
• Review Author Guidelines for InfoQ Mini-books
• You will retain the copyright for any content produced
• You grant InfoQ an exclusive right to publish the free online version
• InfoQ will remove mini-book if the author requests
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13. Start Writing →