Inside the SQL Server Query Optimizer

I want to start a series of posts about my experiences as a writer, which may include publishing books, blogging, or even presenting at conferences. I have been an avid book reader since I was a kid and I always thought that writing a book would be an awesome experience. I never thought, however that I will ever publish a book on my own, let alone writing it in a second language.

Blogging

My first experience writing was blogging at sqlblog.com, which hosted many wonderful people in the SQL Server community including Kalen Delaney, Kevin Kline, Louis Davidson and many more. This was probably around 2009. The website is not online anymore but it was extremely popular back then.

My main topic of interest was the SQL Server query optimizer. But in addition to write about the query optimizer I also wanted to do something else. Even when I was new to the SQL Server community I wanted to write only original content, topics that nobody had ever written about. In order to do that obviously I would have to search the web to see if somebody already wrote about it and also do a lot of research about the topic to go deeper than anyone else has before. Writing about something original is not something you can just do easily in one day. I remember research for some of those articles taking almost a week, if not longer.

Starting blogging was not easy either. I believe I was good at researching the technology but perhaps not as good at writing. I wrote a few posts and asked Kalen Delaney if the posts were Ok. Kalen would said they were fine. Probably my writing was good, or at least acceptable, but somehow I was still not confident about it for some reason.

So my goal was perhaps I can start blogging so after several months or a year I may get an offer to write a chapter for a book. It was surprising that I got an offer to write a book on my own within probably just a few posts.

Even when I wanted to write a book, having an offer way to soon, for some reason I didn't take it seriously. Tony Davis from Red Gate sent me an e-mail saying if I was interested in writing a book about the SQL Server query optimizer. Credit to Tony, writing an entire book about the query optimizer was his idea on the first place.

So I didn't taken him seriously. But it was a coincidence that the PASS Summit was coming soon, probably within two weeks. Tony e-mailed me something like 'Ben, want to meet at the PASS Summit to discuss this book'. I agreed to meet him.

I don't think I ever saw Tony during the conference and he scheduled our meeting for the last day of the event at lunch time. Later he told me he had attended one of my sessions. For some reason I was not really interested in meeting him so I totally forgot about the meeting. The last day of the conference I went very late for lunch and Kalen was also there, so we got lunch together. At the middle of the lunch I received a call or message from Tony saying he was waiting for me in some other place and asking why I didn't show up. I ask him if we can meet in one hour instead.

So I finally met Tony. Long story short I agreed to write the book. Wow, I didn't take it seriously and even ignore him and suddenly I was very excited about this project. That meeting was the last thing I did at that PASS Summit. After the meeting I left to the airport and remember being excited about the project on the way back home.

Working on the book

The first question after accepting the project was, am I the right person to write such book? Did I have all the knowledge required? I sure loved the topic, believed I had the knowledge required and was willing to research everything else needed. Another funny and interesting coincidence, at that same conference I met Cesar Galindo-Legaria.

Cesar, like me, was originally from Mexico, and back then he was the Manager of the SQL Server Query Optimizer team at Microsoft. So I asked him, Cesar, I got this offer to write this book, would you help me with any question I am sure will have? He said something like this in Spanish 'Congratulations, of course, I would help on everything I can!'.

So I started working on the book. But when I submitted my first Chapter Tony started rewriting parts of it. Even when Tony was obviously trying to help with the writing style or who knows what, he was totally changing my idea or message. Obviously I would have to spend more time fixing what he had changed.

Suddenly Tony disappeared from the project for months and I feel like abandoned and on my own. He told me he was busy on some other project. But later Tony assigned another person who helped a lot to keep the project moving, Chris Massey. He was incredible at improving my writing style but still keeping the core of the message so I owe a lot to him for the book.

Conference edition

Again the PASS Summit interfered. We were supposed to have the book ready for the Summit but as we always know, things never end on schedule. So we had only four solid chapters before the Summit. Tony had the idea to have a conference edition of the book with only those four chapters. He told me only 50 copies if this edition were printed.

So I was at the PASS summit and it was wonderful to see that book "Conference Edition" printed and out. Red Gate said the complimentary copies went out extremely fast and I even got people asking me for a copy.

After the PASS Summit we still spent a few months to finish the book. My interactions with Tony were almost none, he was still busy with other projects but I was still working with Chris, which help me to rescue the project. By the way, I was not a big fan of the Red Gate book covers, at least at that time, and I thought it was going to be really hard to find a good one for my book. The first cover they proposed me was the one with the lighthouse or beacon light. I liked it so much that I said there was no need to look at any other choices.

Publication

I don't remember exactly when we finished the book. I know I can look for e-mails, which I still have, but maybe some other time. By mid March of 2011 Tony told me the book could be available on Amazon at any moment. There was no pre-sale choice, Amazon will show the book only after having the books ready to ship. I was checking Amazon every day and nothing. Suddenly, on March 31 my book showed up on Amazon. I was so excited I bought my own copy immediately. I posted about it on twitter and more people started buying it but, more important, reading it. To this day Amazon still shows " You purchased this item on March 31, 2011" on the page of the book.

I believed the book was very well received in the SQL Server community and after its publication I started to get invitations to do presentations all over the world. Probably the first international event I did was Istanbul, which remains the most beautiful city I have ever visited.

I want to close this post with one of the biggest compliments my book has ever had, by my best friend the late Robert Davis, and posted on the page of the book on Amazon

"If you love learning about the internal workings of SQL Server, then you will love this book. This isn't one of those "learn query plans in 24 hours" tutorial books. These is for people who want real deep knowledge.

When I was the program manager running the SQL Server Advanced Certification program (Certified Master/Certified Architect) in Microsoft Learning, I had proposed adding this book to the recommended reading list for prospective Masters. Unfortunately, the program was ended prematurely by Microsoft."