Margaret

Margaret

Editor at PragProg

Call for new PragProg Proposals Committee Members

Hello DevTalk Community!

Once again, The Pragmatic Programmers are looking for developers who’d like to help shape the future of our book lineup. Our Proposals Committee is a group that reviews incoming book proposals and offers recommendations. While this is an unpaid role, we recognize contributors on our About Us page.

Our goal is to provide constructive feedback to prospective authors. Even if a proposal isn’t the right fit for PragProg, we want to ensure the author walks away with valuable insights—whether that means refining their pitch for another publisher or strengthening their approach for self-publishing.

What we look for in feedback:

When reviewing a proposal, we encourage committee members to consider questions like:

  • Who is the audience?
    • Does the author clearly describe the ideal reader?
    • Will the book engage novices without frustrating them?
  • What is the author’s tone?
    • Is the writing engaging and approachable?
    • Does it feel like a tour guide or more like a roadmap?
  • Does the book solve real challenges for developers?
    • Does it address key pain points in the topic area?
    • Could a developer easily find this information elsewhere?
  • How does it compare to existing books?
    • Is it too broad or too niche?
    • Does it provide a unique perspective?
  • Is the author connected to the intended audience?
    • Can they actively engage with the developer community?

You don’t need to answer these questions directly—just keep them in mind when reviewing a proposal. The best feedback comes from your own perspective and expertise. We do ask that each review includes a recommendation: Yes (with reasons), Maybe (with suggested improvements), or No (with constructive feedback).

:bulb: It helps if you’ve read a few PragProg books and are familiar with our hands-on, practical style.

If you’re interested in joining the Proposals Committee, send a message to margaret.eldridge@pragprog.com, and I’ll send over a sample proposal to review.

Feel free to post any questions here or reach out via email.

Thanks for considering this opportunity to help shape the future of PragProg books!

Most Liked

alvinkatojr

alvinkatojr

Hello Margaret,

This looks interesting.

I’m curious, how long in terms of word/page count is a typical proposal? And do you have timelines for when proposals should be reviewed?

Thanks!

Margaret

Margaret

Editor at PragProg

Great questions, @alvinkatojr.

Proposals are typically 2 to 3 pages in length, with a writing sample of 7 to 10 pages. We ask committee members to respond within 1 week.

alvinkatojr

alvinkatojr

Thanks for the reply @Margaret! I’ve just send you an email.

Where Next?

Popular General Dev topics Top

AstonJ
Thread to discuss ideas and thoughts on how developers might be able help in the Coronavirus pandemic.
New
New
AstonJ
Maybe a specific language or framework? Or a book or tool perhaps? What’s made your life easier and what do you think could make the live...
New
Margaret
Hello everyone! This thread is to tell you about what authors from The Pragmatic Bookshelf are writing on Medium.
1145 27688 760
New
Exadra37
Kubernetes is everywhere. Transactional apps, video streaming services and machine learning workloads are finding a home on this ever-gro...
New
malloryerik
With 100% less blockchain. I went searching for a lightweight immutable database that could be audited and ran into this. I guess this ...
New
DevotionGeo
For me it’s six to seven steps above complete dark, on MacBook Air M1.
New
DevotionGeo
I am planning to refresh my Ruby knowledge in a month or two, after using other technologies more frequently for a few years. Luckily I w...
New
ivanhercaz
Hi! I usually keep changelogs for my projects because I think they are really useful, not only to track the changes and not to be lost b...
New
New

Other popular topics Top

wolf4earth
@AstonJ prompted me to open this topic after I mentioned in the lockdown thread how I started to do a lot more for my fitness. https://f...
New
AstonJ
Thanks to @foxtrottwist’s and @Tomas’s posts in this thread: Poll: Which code editor do you use? I bought Onivim! :nerd_face: https://on...
New
AstonJ
I ended up cancelling my Moonlander order as I think it’s just going to be a bit too bulky for me. I think the Planck and the Preonic (o...
New
AstonJ
Do the test and post your score :nerd_face: :keyboard: If possible, please add info such as the keyboard you’re using, the layout (Qw...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Tailwind CSS is an exciting new CSS framework that allows you to design your site by composing simple utility classes to create complex e...
New
Exadra37
I am asking for any distro that only has the bare-bones to be able to get a shell in the server and then just install the packages as we ...
New
AstonJ
If you are experiencing Rails console using 100% CPU on your dev machine, then updating your development and test gems might fix the issu...
New
New
New
Fl4m3Ph03n1x
Background Lately I am in a quest to find a good quality TTS ai generation tool to run locally in order to create audio for some videos I...
New