It’s been a while since I published the last chapter of LazyVim for Ambitious Developers on the website, but I was waiting for the print edition to be available to share it widely. And that required waiting (twice) for proofs to be mailed to me.

But it’s finally here! For a direct link to purchase the print edition, click here.

I’m proud of the book contents. I’m pretty confident that even seasoned Vim power users would pick up one or two tricks they didn’t already know. I didn’t cover everything, of course. I’m sure those same power users can come up with tips to make it even better.

This was a huge project, even before I decided to self-publish. I spent many ours doing research, rereading the Neovim user manual, and scoping out those few best-in-class plugins that LazyVim isn’t aware of (yet). The distro kept changing underneath me as I wrote and I know it will continue to do so. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Folke Lemaitre, the creator and maintainer of LazyVim and many of its core plugins. He ships code as fast as I do, and it’s a joy to watch my text editor evolve as I use it.

With my traditionally published books, my work was all-but-done when I submitted the final draft of the content to the publisher. When self publishing, that’s just the point when the real work begins. I had to edit, edit, and edit (with thanks to dozens of people who submitted hundreds of errata as the book was released online). I had to format the interior, a tedious skill I already had from my father’s early novels and my own ill-conceived book Hacking Happy. Content that works on the web doesn’t know about things like page margins, bleed, page breaks, or even line breaks. And after the interior was done, I had to write cover copy and coordinate with my cover designer (my wife). I hope we make enough money off the project to justify the time she put in, but I know my time is a total write-off!

I don’t expect a ton of sales of the print edition. It’s for people like me who have an inexplicable attachment to physical books. I went to the trouble and expense of designing a premium-printed hardcover book with a full-colour interior. Those luxuries add to the expense; I know most folks aren’t going to spend that much on a book that will be, at the end of the day, outdated as soon as LazyVim makes another major release. If there is demand, it would be fairly straightforward to print a cheaper paperback edition, so that option may be open for the future.

I am committed to maintaining the web content for as long as I use LazyVim, and I will certainly release new editions of the print and e-book formats as needed. But for now, I’m ready to move on to new projects (and a new job, if anyone out there is looking to hire a somewhat odd programmer and author).