WHAT IS IT?
===========

An experimental Markdown (http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/)
workflow for writing No Starch books.

My goal here was to give authors a more palatable plaintext format to work
with, as well as something that could be easily converted into other formats
(HTML, ePub, ODT, whatever).

Note that this requires pandoc for the conversion, as well as anything you need
to build normal No Starch LaTeX books (fonts, extra TeX packages, etc.). If
you're an author, you don't have to worry about that unless you really want to
build the PDF yourself.


HOW DO I USE IT?
================

Just write your chapters! The make_pdf.sh script will automatically find any
files with extension .txt, convert them to LaTeX files using pandoc, and spruce
'em up a bit to be NSP-compatible. Then a PDF should pop out in your working
directory.

Note that if there are any NSP-specific page elements you need that Markdown
lacks syntax for (notes, boxes, etc.), you can just insert straight LaTeX into
the .txt file and it will be preserved during the conversion.


WHAT ELSE?
==========

Don't mess with the generated LaTeX if at all possible. And if you absolutely
*must* tweak it, do so after the pages have been edited, revised, tech
reviewed, copyedited, and are ready for "layout." The idea is that nobody has
to futz with LaTeX until the last possible moment, before the pages are proof
read. Otherwise you might as well just write your book in LaTeX! (Don't do
that.)

Any other questions/bugs/whatever, just ask me. Or take a look at the script --
it's really simple. Pandoc is doing all the heavy lifting.

~ Keith
keith@nostarch.com