First, the good news: in this short and easy-to-read book, the author presents a large number of specific (and relevant) dos and don’ts for individuals thinking of starting out on their own as computer consultants. Most of his advice, in fact, is valid for would-be purveyors of any type of professional service. Tips like first getting the necessary training and making initial contacts and landing the first consulting contract before leaving a salaried job may be obvious but are often overlooked, as are health and life insurance, credit lines, and retirement plans once salaried employment ceases. The book offers much good advice.

Next, a matter of semantics: the author defines a computer consultant as someone who does custom programming, and a freelancer as someone who has developed a software product she or he is now trying to sell. He does not include a person who provides advice to management in either category. Not everyone would agree.

And now for the bad news, which always takes up more bytes than the good: given a target audience of computer professionals, the author nonetheless talks down to the reader in a “how-to-develop-a-winning-attitude” manner. Strictures such as “you must be able to stick with a project until you are completely finished” are true but are also out of place for this audience. Grammatical errors and misspellings such as ‘develope,’ ‘perdicament,’ and ‘basicly’ abound, and the author errs in the use of effect and affect; that, who, and whom and the like; and the plural possessive.

The book seems to have come from a verbatim transcript of a talk, rather than a manuscript written specifically for publication, in that the author favors the characteristics of spoken English. He also assumes that consultants voluntarily leave salaried jobs to which they can return if their consulting efforts fail. This option often exists, but equally often it does not. And although he correctly points out that consultants’ biggest challenge is getting clients, he does not mention that their second-greatest challenge is getting paid.

Finally, the printing itself gives the impression of having been generated by word processsor with no spelling checker. It is true that a book should not be judged by its cover, but poor grammar, spelling, proofreading, and printing affect both an author’s and a publisher’s credibilities.