8 ms·

So let me get this straight. For the low price of $39 I will get the full book in ebook and HTML formats when it is done. But for the price of $89 I will get

So let me get this straight. For the low price of $39 I will get the full book in ebook and HTML formats when it is done. But for the price of $89 I will get extra chapters on Server-side rendering, Offline data and mutations, Serverless and Stripe integration. So I am clearly not getting the full book for $39. I just recently refused to buy a game for employing the same dishonest sales tactics, so this is an easy no thanks from me.

tgtweak 8y ago
Day-0 DLC has arrived to technical literature. John really is ahead of the curve.
- btown 8y ago
  Errata can only be accessed via microtransactions. And loot boxes have a chance to drop full code samples... the F2P version leaves everything as an exercise for the reader.
  - ygjb 8y ago
    Oh, oh no. There is a missed opportunity here. Common lootboxes drop a line of code, uncommon an entire method, rare, a full object, and legendary are working samples.
    - btown 8y ago
      Hmm, you know, people want to forge their own legendary objects. Double the drop rate on working samples, but they’re obfuscated until you collect 3 of each code block. And you can sacrifice 10 useless one liners to be able to discover a block of your choice.
- rapfaria 8y ago
  And if he takes as much time as he took with "Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja", we may never even see DLC
castis 8y ago
You're not even getting the full book for $89, the extra chapters stop at $289.
dlisboa 8y ago
Honestly, I think people will disagree with me on this (due to some vague "you don't have to buy it" argument), but it's just too dishonest to me. This is possibly the biggest rip-off in pricing of any technical book I've ever seen. If you pay $39 you get 8 fewer chapters than the actual full book. And it's online only, so no paper printing or publisher overhead. For $89 you get a video and some extra chapters (that really should be in the book you paid for in the first place). If you pay $289 (which is an absolute absurd price for any book) you get exactly what you used to get with books 10 years ago: a book with all its intended chapters, a mailing list, a glorified IRC channel and a code repo. Except, again, it's still not even a physical book (so why so expensive?). If you pay the "Training" package ($749) you supposedly get superior in-person mentoring. Except it's not really done by the authors. It all sounds like some Tai Lopez scam. I don't want to diminish the amount of work it took to make this book, or the quality of the authors. I'm sure it's incredible and it seems a pretty massive book. But I just don't understand these sort of things when it comes to professional programmers who write books. Supposedly they want to spread this technology they care about and want people to use it. We as programmers get paid very well, we're not in need of money. Book revenue is probably not their main source of income. So why price it out of everyone's range? You're not gonna reach nearly as many people as just selling it at a reasonable price.
- epicide 8y ago
  I'll preface this with the fact that I completely agree with your sentiment. > it's still not even a physical book (so why so expensive?) I have never written or published a book, but my understanding is that the cost of writing the book far outweighs the cost of actually printing it. Human time and knowledge is way more costly than some paper and the effort of a machine that spits out books by the second. > If you pay $289 (which is an absolute absurd price for any book) This offer and especially the in-person one seem like they are targeting businesses. A lot of places will pay orders of magnitude more to have someone work directly with their employees. Honestly, about $93/hour is on the cheap side for in-person training. (I'm not saying it's good training or even close to worth it, just what the landscape looks like) Edit: actually, it would be cheaper than $93/hour since I'm not taking the other things into account. Let's say the book and all the other stuff realistically make up about $150 of the price (I am guessing the $289 is just trying to get you to buy one of the surrounding tiers). That's actually $75/hour for the training.
sgdesign 8y ago
So would you be happier if only the $39 price point was available, without any of the extra chapters? Then you wouldn't have the other price point to make you feel like you're missing out on something?
- sakarisson 8y ago
  I would be happier if they didn't lie to me and claim that $39 will get me the full book. I would be even happier if they didn't go the video game route and add several purchase tiers including day-0 DLC. It's manipulative and will make me feel like I missed out if I opt for one of the cheaper options.
- jhall1468 8y ago
  How about he releases the entire book at a reasonable price point that isn't $250. It's unfortunate that John is playing games with pricing. This entire pricing scheme feels like something EA would cook up and that is NOT good optics.
dominotw 8y ago
I remember waiting like 2 years for manning 'javascript ninja' book that he never finished. I think someone else took over and finished that book. https://www.manning.com/books/secrets-of-the-javascript-ninja https://www.manning.com/books/secrets-of-the-javascript-ninj...
- dominotw 8y ago
  I bought that book solely based on author's fame. I got the book written by someone else. He offered no explantion as to why he stopped writing that book.
  - jimmy1 8y ago
    And in the end, it ended up being an excellent book. I don't think this complaint fits here.
    - dominotw 8y ago
      It fits because I moved on from doing javascript, it was no use to me when all the chapters were finished. There was no compalint about the quality, yes it was excellent for the chapters i read.
      - jimmy1 8y ago
        But you knew you were paying for an unfinished book ahead of time, so why did you base your decision to "do javascript" on unfinished work?
        dominotw 8y ago
        Yes I knew but I wasn't expecting to wait 4 yrs and receive a book written by a completely different person. He is offering people to buy another unfinished book so my comment is relevant in this context. I didn't base by decision to write javascript on book, merely pointing out that book was no use for me after 4 yrs.
- 8y ago

tgtweak 8y ago

Day-0 DLC has arrived to technical literature. John really is ahead of the curve.

btown 8y ago
Errata can only be accessed via microtransactions. And loot boxes have a chance to drop full code samples... the F2P version leaves everything as an exercise for the reader.
- ygjb 8y ago
  Oh, oh no. There is a missed opportunity here. Common lootboxes drop a line of code, uncommon an entire method, rare, a full object, and legendary are working samples.
  - btown 8y ago
    Hmm, you know, people want to forge their own legendary objects. Double the drop rate on working samples, but they’re obfuscated until you collect 3 of each code block. And you can sacrifice 10 useless one liners to be able to discover a block of your choice.
rapfaria 8y ago
And if he takes as much time as he took with "Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja", we may never even see DLC

castis 8y ago

You're not even getting the full book for $89, the extra chapters stop at $289.

dlisboa 8y ago

Honestly, I think people will disagree with me on this (due to some vague "you don't have to buy it" argument), but it's just too dishonest to me. This is possibly the biggest rip-off in pricing of any technical book I've ever seen. If you pay $39 you get 8 fewer chapters than the actual full book. And it's online only, so no paper printing or publisher overhead. For $89 you get a video and some extra chapters (that really should be in the book you paid for in the first place). If you pay $289 (which is an absolute absurd price for any book) you get exactly what you used to get with books 10 years ago: a book with all its intended chapters, a mailing list, a glorified IRC channel and a code repo. Except, again, it's still not even a physical book (so why so expensive?). If you pay the "Training" package ($749) you supposedly get superior in-person mentoring. Except it's not really done by the authors. It all sounds like some Tai Lopez scam. I don't want to diminish the amount of work it took to make this book, or the quality of the authors. I'm sure it's incredible and it seems a pretty massive book. But I just don't understand these sort of things when it comes to professional programmers who write books. Supposedly they want to spread this technology they care about and want people to use it. We as programmers get paid very well, we're not in need of money. Book revenue is probably not their main source of income. So why price it out of everyone's range? You're not gonna reach nearly as many people as just selling it at a reasonable price.

epicide 8y ago
I'll preface this with the fact that I completely agree with your sentiment. > it's still not even a physical book (so why so expensive?) I have never written or published a book, but my understanding is that the cost of writing the book far outweighs the cost of actually printing it. Human time and knowledge is way more costly than some paper and the effort of a machine that spits out books by the second. > If you pay $289 (which is an absolute absurd price for any book) This offer and especially the in-person one seem like they are targeting businesses. A lot of places will pay orders of magnitude more to have someone work directly with their employees. Honestly, about $93/hour is on the cheap side for in-person training. (I'm not saying it's good training or even close to worth it, just what the landscape looks like) Edit: actually, it would be cheaper than $93/hour since I'm not taking the other things into account. Let's say the book and all the other stuff realistically make up about $150 of the price (I am guessing the $289 is just trying to get you to buy one of the surrounding tiers). That's actually $75/hour for the training.

sgdesign 8y ago

So would you be happier if only the $39 price point was available, without any of the extra chapters? Then you wouldn't have the other price point to make you feel like you're missing out on something?

sakarisson 8y ago
I would be happier if they didn't lie to me and claim that $39 will get me the full book. I would be even happier if they didn't go the video game route and add several purchase tiers including day-0 DLC. It's manipulative and will make me feel like I missed out if I opt for one of the cheaper options.
jhall1468 8y ago
How about he releases the entire book at a reasonable price point that isn't $250. It's unfortunate that John is playing games with pricing. This entire pricing scheme feels like something EA would cook up and that is NOT good optics.

dominotw 8y ago

I remember waiting like 2 years for manning 'javascript ninja' book that he never finished. I think someone else took over and finished that book. https://www.manning.com/books/secrets-of-the-javascript-ninja https://www.manning.com/books/secrets-of-the-javascript-ninj...

dominotw 8y ago
I bought that book solely based on author's fame. I got the book written by someone else. He offered no explantion as to why he stopped writing that book.
- jimmy1 8y ago
  And in the end, it ended up being an excellent book. I don't think this complaint fits here.
  - dominotw 8y ago
    It fits because I moved on from doing javascript, it was no use to me when all the chapters were finished. There was no compalint about the quality, yes it was excellent for the chapters i read.
    - jimmy1 8y ago
      But you knew you were paying for an unfinished book ahead of time, so why did you base your decision to "do javascript" on unfinished work?
      - dominotw 8y ago
        Yes I knew but I wasn't expecting to wait 4 yrs and receive a book written by a completely different person. He is offering people to buy another unfinished book so my comment is relevant in this context. I didn't base by decision to write javascript on book, merely pointing out that book was no use for me after 4 yrs.
8y ago