{"by":"mtlynch","descendants":1,"id":49964837,"kids":[49964929],"score":5,"text":"I&#x27;ve been writing online about software and entrepreneurship for the last decade. You may remember me as the guy who quit his job at Google to bootstrap my own business (<a href=\"https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=16483241\">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=16483241</a>) or the guy who spent $46k on a website redesign that got out of control (<a href=\"https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=32179563\">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=32179563</a>).<p>Other developers have asked me for help with their writing, and I realized that there are certain techniques and best practices I&#x27;ve picked up over time that most developers don&#x27;t know. Some of the rules take practice to apply, but a lot of them you can apply as soon as you understand it.<p>I&#x27;ve spent the last two years capturing all the writing techniques I&#x27;ve learned into a book called <i>Refactoring English: Effective Writing for Software Developers</i> (<a href=\"https:&#x2F;&#x2F;refactoringenglish.com&#x2F;\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;refactoringenglish.com&#x2F;</a>). I&#x27;m launching the book today in both print and digital formats.<p>This book would not be possible without HN. I initially funded it with Kickstarter, and sales had plateaued at around 80% of my target with only four days remaining (<a href=\"https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mtlynch.io&#x2F;book-pre-sale-just-barely-succeeded&#x2F;\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mtlynch.io&#x2F;book-pre-sale-just-barely-succeeded&#x2F;</a>). Fortunately, a reader posted one of my sample chapters to HN (<a href=\"https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=43503872\">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=43503872</a>), and the support from HN users pushed me from 80% of my goal to 130% of my goal.","time":1791207948,"title":"Show HN: I wrote a book to help developers to improve their writing","type":"story","url":"https://refactoringenglish.com"}