Doing a Foreward for a Check Point Book
I have been asked to do a foreward for a book on Check Point NGX that Syngress is going to put out. Knowing that I had some contractual language in my contract with Addison Wesley, I was a little aprehensive at first. Really, the contractual language only covers me doing entire books on the same topic. A foreward, which is a page or two at the beginning of the book by someone who isn’t one of the authors, is a small part of the book and certainly nowhere near writing a book.
This morning, I had called my editor at AW, whom I hadn’t talked to in about a year. I asked her if I was allowed to write a foreward for a book by a competing publishing house. She said she was fine with it and appreciated that I asked. Told her I felt it was common courtesy to do so, even though I didn’t think it was against our contract. “Common courtesy is dead” she said to me. It almost is. 
Meanwhile, I’ve got a week or so to scribble down a few thoughts. Timing isn’t so great since I will be on vacation, but I’ve done blog entires on a Nokia 9500. I’m sure a foreward won’t be that much more difficult to peck out with my thumbs.
