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A number of GNU manuals are relevant to the topics discussed in this chapter, and will give you a deeper understanding. It is worth reading the tutorial sections of each of these. GNU manuals come with the software, and are also available from http://www.gnu.org/doc/doc.html.
The libtool manual explains the intermediate .lo and .la files created while your program or library is compiling; automake generates makefiles which use libtool.
The autoconf manual explains how to write configure.in and its associated files.
The automake manual explains how to write a Makefile.am.
The gettext manual has sections titled "Programmers" and "Maintainers"; you should read these to learn how the intl and po subdirectories work.
The GNU coding standards describe how GNU packages should behave; autoconf and automake try to implement these standards.
The GNU hello package is intended to demonstrate the GNU packaging standards, and is an excellent source of examples. "GnomeHello" and other Gnome packages are a good source of Gnome-specific examples, of course.
The manuals for make, the Bourne shell, and m4 are essential if you need to write custom configure checks or add Makefile targets outside of automake's capabilities.