What’s It Like To Write A Textbook? An Interview With Authors Of MGMAT’s 5th Edition Strategy Guides, Pt 2
In keeping with our 5th Edition Release Week festivities, we’re really excited to bring to you an interview with three of the people behind our awesome new 5th Edition Manhattan GMAT Strategy Guides.
Below is part 2 of a 2 part interview with David Mahler, Stacey Koprince, and Liz Moliski. Learn what part of the books was hardest to write, what part was our interviewee’s favorite, and how a student should work their way through the books. Part 1 is here.
What was it like to finally finish the books? What was the final rush to beat the deadline like?
Stacey Koprince: I was lucky in that I received the research relatively early on for my book, so I was done in advance of the eventual deadline. I say the “eventual” deadline, because the first deadline I was given didn’t end up being the final deadline. Because some of the other books were delayed, all of the deadlines were pushed back several times, so I finished on time. I’ll admit, though, that I might’ve missed the original deadline if it hadn’t been moved back. : )
For the quant books, though, I would sometimes receive part of the galleys (the files that needed to be proofed) one day and need to give my edits the next day or the day after. Towards the end, we were all working to turn things around so quickly that I would often only be given a chapter at a time, and by the time I was done with it (an hour or two later), the next chapter would be ready to edit.
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What’s It Like To Write A Textbook? An Interview With Authors Of MGMAT’s 5th Edition Strategy Guides, Pt 1
In keeping with our 5th Edition Release Week festivities, we’re really excited to bring to you an interview with three of the people behind our awesome new 5th Edition Manhattan GMAT Strategy Guides.
Below is part 1 of a 2 part interview with David Mahler, Stacey Koprince, and Liz Moliski. Learn what it’s like to write a textbook, how long the process takes, what it’s like approaching the final deadline, and more! Be sure to check back tomorrow for part 2.
What’s it like to actually write a textbook? Where do you start? What is the day-to-day process like?
Stacey Koprince: We do a lot of research before we can even think about starting to write. We examine every all of the most recent official questions to determine patterns, language structures, traps, and so on. We use that data to determine the best solution methods and what and how our students need to study in order to succeed with that question type or content area.
After several months, we’re finally ready to start writing. The process isn’t that different from writing a school paper – a really long school paper! I start with an outline, and then I expand the outline chapter by chapter. Once I have a clear idea of the sub-sections I want to have in each chapter, then I dive into the actual writing.
5th Edition Manhattan GMAT Strategy Guides Giveaways!
In celebration of the release of our 5th Edition Strategy Guides, we’re giving away a complete set (10 books!) to one lucky person. For a chance to win the beautiful books you see to your left, head over to our Facebook page and “like” our post announcing the giveaway. We’ll pick one person at random Friday afternoon. If we get over 100 “likes”, we’ll give away a second set of books, so get as many people to “like” it as you can!
We’ll also be giving away a complete set of 5th Edition Strategy Guides on Twitter at some point this week, and in the next issue of our newsletter, GMATTERS, as well as a few other places online. Keep your eyes peeled for a chance to win! Or, if you can’t wait, head over to our store and pick up the books now and see how great they really are.
Update, 4/26/12: We’re giving away a set of 5th edition books on GMAT Club and Beat the GMAT. Post on the linked threads for a chance to win!
The 5th Edition Manhattan GMAT Strategy Guides Have Arrived!
We are excited to announce the release of our new 5th Edition GMAT Strategy Guides! Months of intensive work by our 99th percentile instructors has resulted in what we believe are the finest GMAT prep books money can buy. The 10 5th Edition books (which amount to nearly 1,900 pages!) were designed with our content-based approach to prepare students for the most recent changes to the GMAT, including Integrated Reasoning. The 5th Edition Strategy Guides come with access to 6 free online practice exams as well as access to over 200 additional free practice questions in 9 subject-specific question banks.
Interested in learning more? Check out the individual book pages in our MGMAT Store. We’re also going to have a lot of great content and giveaways relating to the new 5th Edition guides on the blog this week so make sure you check back every day!