SAS Press Series» Author Interview
Author Interview with Geoff Der and Brian S. Everitt
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Co-authors Geoff Der and Brian S. Everitt take time out of their busy schedules to discuss their new book Basic Statistics Using SAS Enterprise Guide: A Primer, as well as their publishing experiences. |
- Authorline (AL): What was your motivation for writing your book?
- Brian S. Everitt (BSE): To provide an easy introduction to using SAS Enterprise Guide for undertaking statistical analyses.
- Geoff Der (GD): We've followed the development of SAS Enterprise Guide over the years since it was first released and felt that it had become a mature product - both easy to use and powerful. We've had the idea of the book for some time but needed to develop it and find a time slot between our other commitments.
- (AL): Who are you targeting with your book?
- (BSE): Researchers who do much of their own statistics but are neither computer experts nor statisticians.
- (GD): In the past we've tended to target the academic audience as that's the one we are most familiar with. We hope this book will reach a wider audience.
- (AL): What features of the book are you especially pleased with?
- (BSE): The structure and the examples.
- (GD): We had a lot of useful feedback from SAS Press on early drafts which led us to the final structure and layout. The very practical approach with lots of examples based on real data is one that we hope will have wide appeal.
- (AL): How will your book benefit SAS users?
- (GD): For existing SAS users the book will provide them with a quick and simple introduction to SAS Enterprise Guide. We're hoping it will encourage them to try it out. If they do, they could be pleasantly surprised at how easily and quickly they can get their analyses done and with publication quality output too! Obviously, we are also hoping that those completely new to SAS will be encouraged to try it out as well.
- (AL): How did you decide to coauthor the book? How did you divide your responsibilities?
- (BSE) and (GD): We have co-authored two previous books on SAS which have been very successful and we largely followed the same plan for this one. Brian would do a first draft of a chapter and then Geoff would add the SAS EG instructions and produce the relevant output. This would be followed by one or two further iterations to get the chapter into its final state.
- (AL): What were some of the joys of writing this book?
- (BSE): Finishing it!
- (AL): What did you learn while writing this book that would be important for other authors to know?
- (GD): You always learn new things on a project like this. SAS Press reminded us that the audience for a book like this is truly international and that English won't always be their first language. We had lots of good suggestions for simplifying and clarifying our writing.
- (AL): How did you decide to publish with SAS?
- (BSE) and (GD): SAS is the biggest customer for one of our other books, so it was natural to consider SAS as the publisher for this one. We thought that they would know the audience for a book like this better than us.
- (AL): Your book will be going to the printer in just a few weeks. How does it feel to be in the home stretch of such a long project?
- (BSE): It's always a good feeling when a project like this reaches the publication stage although waiting for reviews and sales figures becomes a concern.
- (AL): What advice would you give to potential authors?
- (BSE): Ask for an advance :-)
- (GD): Now that SAS and Enterprise Guide both use ODS, getting the output into publication ready format is much easier, but do get your settings right from the start. For writers in the UK remember the old saying that Britain and America are two nations divided by a common language. Agree which one you are using at the outset!
- (AL): How were you able to balance your time between your career and writing this book?
- (BSE): My career is now writing books since I am retired from academia.
- (GD): Brian is a prodigious writer. It was hard to keep up with him even before he retired. All I can say is that my family has been very understanding.
- (AL): When you aren't writing or consulting, how do you like to spend your free time?
- (BSE): Avoiding my teenage daughter (not really), playing tennis, walking, reading and cooking.
- (GD): My son might have felt that I was avoiding him while we were writing this book, but it wasn't so. My hobbies include rock climbing, wine tasting, ice skating and playing the piano. My garden claims more than its fair share of my free time, but how else can I aspire to a perfect lawn in Scotland's climate?
| Geoff Der is a research statistician in the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. He is the co-author of Statistical Analysis of Medical Data Using SAS and A Handbook of Statistical Analyses Using SAS, Second Edition. |
| Brian Everitt is Professor Emeritus at King's College, London. He is the co-author of Statistical Analysis of Medical Data Using SAS and A Handbook of Statistical Analyses Using SAS, Second Edition. |