Ask HN: Being a technical reviewer?

1 pointgreggyb1 comment

Hi all, I've received an interesting missive asking me to be a technical reviewer for a book. This is in a subject area where I am very strong, so I'd be comfortable technically. I am just curious about the general expectations of the experience.

Can anyone who has been a technical reviewer for a book describe their experience, whether positive or negative, and help set expectations?

Thanks so much!

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First of all, congrats! Whether you accept it or not, it's always an honor to be recognized.

I did a technical review for a small O'Reilly e-book, so my experience is probably a "lite" version of the process, but it mostly consisted of general fact checking and verifying the completeness of the content. The process was pretty straightforward: they sent me the book, I read it a few times, added relevant comments to the document, and sent it back.

Overall a positive and interesting experience that I would definitely do again.

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