5 ms·

It is exactly what was used to generate the print book, just with some web enabled features like links. And yes, this is the PDF you'd get if you buy it from O

by sandal 17y ago

It is exactly what was used to generate the print book, just with some web enabled features like links. And yes, this is the PDF you'd get if you buy it from O'Reilly. Marketing-wise, it was a gamble, because the open source release date wasn't contingent on sales or anything like that. We launched the book and gave a 9 month exclusive rights period to O'Reilly. This at least takes into account the fact that most books sell the majority of their copies in the first month or two, but I didn't have like a minimum sales number before I could open source the book or anything like that. In fact, the print book says right in the front cover that it'd be open sourced in March. The book did okay sales wise, not great, but not horrible. It definitely did worse than it should given that (at least from the looks of it) people really, really like it. But this isn't really up to the readers, it's up to the distributor. Basically, much of our sales come from wholesale, and with paper book stores on the decline, and the saturation of the market with Ruby books over the last couple years, it was hard to convince them to pick up a lot of copies of the book. As of right now, I am just about at the point of clearing my advance. I will share specific numbers at some point, but let's just say that the advance probably works out to minimum wage or less when compared to the amount of effort put in. Interestingly enough, the gradual week by week release of chapters really led to a nice spike in sales, coming from what was essentially a steady decline except for a spike around the holidays. So actually, I think open sourcing the book was good for sales in that regard. Since it might be hard to find the book on the shelves in a book store, this gives people a chance to "try before they buy". Unfortunately, because my book was selling above average as an ebook, I've probably effectively killed those sales today. Then again, maybe people will still buy the Kindle and Iphone editions, who knows. At the end of the day, I think neither O'Reilly nor myself expected this book to be a big bread winner. I love the book because it embodies the most interesting things I've learned from the smartest people I know, and I think that comes through in the writing. I wrote the book because the idea popped into my head fully formed and demanded to be put out on paper. So that was my biggest win. But from an authors perspective, RBP has given me a great boost in exposure. I already had name recognition in the inner circles of Ruby community, but after writing the book, I find more opportunities from folks I probably wouldn't have been able to reach otherwise. This has been good for my open source projects, and good for my work. I'm glad I did this, and it worked out well. I'd recommend it to others, for sure. Of course, buying the book will make O'Reilly happy, so go ahead and do that if you want :)

jamesbritt 17y ago
It's quite a risk to open up a book like this. More so if the main sales are expected to be E-versions. I've talked to a few people who did things along this line, and they are of two minds. One camp says it kills sales. The other says it boosts sales, but in the latter case I don't think there was a PDF version even offered, and they made the book available as a Web site. I encourage people who think this book is valuable to pay for it in some form, to encourage publishers to do more of the same, and to reward the author.
bgraves 17y ago
Thank you for the details! Much appreciated. Even though you may not have been paid a "fair wage" for the work that you put into this book, it sounds like you are very happy with the outcome and the experience and the future benefits that you will undoubtedly reap from this project. Congratulations and thanks again!
- sandal 17y ago
  Actually, I don't think my advance was unfair. I self published a book a couple years ago and it was a logistical nightmare. When you think about what a publisher actually does, it's really a daunting task. I think there was a post here on HN about that recently, but I can't remember the link. The author who wrote it described pretty much the exact process I went through, even though I think he was working with another publisher...
  - bgraves 17y ago
    "fair wage" was a poor choice of words on my part. I didn't mean to imply that your payment was "unfair", but rather that minimum wage is to low (imo) for an advanced programming book.
    - jamesbritt 17y ago
      Writing tech books is something of a crap shoot. I had a mixed blessing with my first book effort, Pro VB 6 & XML. I started out as one of about 10 authors, expected to contribute one or two chapters, and ended up as one of two authors and writing a little over half the book. I got to write about stuff I was already quite familiar with, so it went pretty quick. And the book did OK, so I made some decent money, and the time spent was well worth it. However: It gave me the impression this was a repeatable event. :) Aside from the odd chapter for Wrox (most of which never saw the light of day because books got canceled, though I still got paid since I was not on royalties for them), my next book effort was Beginning Ruby for Wrox, around 2001 or so. Way more work, the tech market was turning to shit, and Ruby was still an uber-niche area. Wrox then went bankrupt, and I never saw my final check for work completed. I got, I think, a grand for several months work. Just before Wrox burned I had some discussions with my editor who suggested various ways to monetize what I had already written. Mostly it was "have a Web site". Thing is, there is so much free quality info already available that drumming up eyeballs and getting people to part with cash is quite tricky. If you're thinking of writing a book you really need to have your eyes open and keep realistic expectations, and be comfortable with what you can expect. If the goal is to build a rep, then sales may not matter. But you are still competing for attention. Greg has the Ruby Best Practices blog; I'm quite honored to be allowed to publish there (and I wish I could get my ass in gear to write more). I'd be all for having ads on the site and finding a way to get some cash back to Greg & O'Reilly so long as it didn't spoil the reader's experience. But I think that's quite doable. I also think E-books can do better by exploiting their E-nature. I've had some ideas for E-books that weren't simply paper books turned PDF. There is lot's you can do with them, and perhaps there are ways to hook them into a recurring revenue service (say, a subscription to Best Practices screencasts or something.) I can't emphasize enough, though, that people who find these things valuable should see about remunerating the author. If you want to see more things like this, help out. People like Greg deserve a lot of credit for trying things out and trying to provide quality material in an affordable way. He is one of the reasons I'm proud to be part of the Ruby community.

by sandal 17y ago

jamesbritt 17y ago

It's quite a risk to open up a book like this. More so if the main sales are expected to be E-versions. I've talked to a few people who did things along this line, and they are of two minds. One camp says it kills sales. The other says it boosts sales, but in the latter case I don't think there was a PDF version even offered, and they made the book available as a Web site. I encourage people who think this book is valuable to pay for it in some form, to encourage publishers to do more of the same, and to reward the author.

bgraves 17y ago

Thank you for the details! Much appreciated. Even though you may not have been paid a "fair wage" for the work that you put into this book, it sounds like you are very happy with the outcome and the experience and the future benefits that you will undoubtedly reap from this project. Congratulations and thanks again!

sandal 17y ago
Actually, I don't think my advance was unfair. I self published a book a couple years ago and it was a logistical nightmare. When you think about what a publisher actually does, it's really a daunting task. I think there was a post here on HN about that recently, but I can't remember the link. The author who wrote it described pretty much the exact process I went through, even though I think he was working with another publisher...
- bgraves 17y ago
  "fair wage" was a poor choice of words on my part. I didn't mean to imply that your payment was "unfair", but rather that minimum wage is to low (imo) for an advanced programming book.
  - jamesbritt 17y ago
    Writing tech books is something of a crap shoot. I had a mixed blessing with my first book effort, Pro VB 6 & XML. I started out as one of about 10 authors, expected to contribute one or two chapters, and ended up as one of two authors and writing a little over half the book. I got to write about stuff I was already quite familiar with, so it went pretty quick. And the book did OK, so I made some decent money, and the time spent was well worth it. However: It gave me the impression this was a repeatable event. :) Aside from the odd chapter for Wrox (most of which never saw the light of day because books got canceled, though I still got paid since I was not on royalties for them), my next book effort was Beginning Ruby for Wrox, around 2001 or so. Way more work, the tech market was turning to shit, and Ruby was still an uber-niche area. Wrox then went bankrupt, and I never saw my final check for work completed. I got, I think, a grand for several months work. Just before Wrox burned I had some discussions with my editor who suggested various ways to monetize what I had already written. Mostly it was "have a Web site". Thing is, there is so much free quality info already available that drumming up eyeballs and getting people to part with cash is quite tricky. If you're thinking of writing a book you really need to have your eyes open and keep realistic expectations, and be comfortable with what you can expect. If the goal is to build a rep, then sales may not matter. But you are still competing for attention. Greg has the Ruby Best Practices blog; I'm quite honored to be allowed to publish there (and I wish I could get my ass in gear to write more). I'd be all for having ads on the site and finding a way to get some cash back to Greg & O'Reilly so long as it didn't spoil the reader's experience. But I think that's quite doable. I also think E-books can do better by exploiting their E-nature. I've had some ideas for E-books that weren't simply paper books turned PDF. There is lot's you can do with them, and perhaps there are ways to hook them into a recurring revenue service (say, a subscription to Best Practices screencasts or something.) I can't emphasize enough, though, that people who find these things valuable should see about remunerating the author. If you want to see more things like this, help out. People like Greg deserve a lot of credit for trying things out and trying to provide quality material in an affordable way. He is one of the reasons I'm proud to be part of the Ruby community.