Jeff you may want to get the book back. The major prerequisite is that you understand the basics of sweep picking. Not the wanking crossing all the strings stuff that nearly ruined guitar in '89 but a simple (?) method of economy of movement (think martial arts). Frank Gambale is a great teacher of this technique so hunt down some of his material.
The technique is:
when playing lines, always play an odd number of notes per string unless you are changing direction (play an even number of notes). This way the last stroke on each string is the same direction as the first stroke on the next string (hence the sweep).
The price to pay is that often ones needs to stretch the fret per finger confort zone but this is offset by a radical increase in speed and note definition. If speed isn't a goal, remember that when swingin', every second note needs "speed" and the phrase is going to require the swingin' to sometimes cross strings.....if you're stumbling, the groove is doomed
Hope that helps, barely a nickle tour on the subject, as I said Frank Gambale's the man. I saw him do an Ibanez clinic in the 80's and in an hour he had the whole thing covered. Maybe Youtube?
Andy