4 ms·

Now even books are subscriptions?!

fathead_glacier 6y ago
The subscription model gives you access to the drafts of the chapters and full book access at 8 months. For $9 at the lowest subscription grade this is $9x8 = $72 which seems like a fair deal to me when going through amazon for similar subject titles. My experience of speaking with authors who have published books is that most of the money stays with the publisher and not the author which is a real pity. The net effect is the discouragement to write books which is counter to progress. The subscription model is really interesting to me and I hope it makes a difference to the book publishing paradigm.
- dTal 6y ago
  Surely the issues of "publisher as middleman" and "book-by-subscription" are orthogonal?
  - dragandj 6y ago
    Yes, but the main goal of these subscriptions is to fund my work on the free open source libraries related to the book. You get the book, AND the active development of the libraries.
    - enriquto 6y ago
      I would only buy the book if you put the pdf freely downloadable on your website (I systematically do that to support authors, because I love "dead trees").
- cyberdrunk 6y ago
  Best books are often written by academics, who get paid to work on them by their university. The royalties are just some nice extra income.
devnonymous 6y ago
Weren't they always ? ...if you consider editions. Which essentially is what the author's promoting - access to draft editions (and presumably updates, post-release -- this wasn't clear).
- theshadowknows 6y ago
  Exactly. Books have always been subscription based. Difference is it’s not monthly. But for that monthly subscription you get so much. Plus the good feels knowing you’re supporting some great open source work.
throwgeorge 6y ago
lol weren't the original subscriptions newspapers e.g. serial distributions of books like david copperfield?
dragandj 6y ago
Author here. Please consider an alternative viewpoint: you can try the book draft for $9, and if you don't like it, just don't continue subscription. Total cost: $9. If you like the book, please consider that 100% of the book proceeds go towards the development of related free open source libraries https://github.com/uncomplicate https://github.com/uncomplicate
- KallDrexx 6y ago
  I've bought plenty of MEAP books at Manning that were incomplete. The difference is that I only had to pay the $30-40 (normal book price) one time and never think about it again, and new revisions would just be delivered to me. There have been several early access books where the author needed to take a (well deserved) break, or be slow at delivering new chapters because of other revisionary work. This has sometimes meant a few months without new content, which I was OK with in that model. In this model I could easily end up spending way more than than that, and every month I have to make a decision if it's worth cancelling. Not only that you have another book on there that's "early access too" so you are juggling two books (and books are not trivial things to write and get finished/polished). So how am I to expect you'll get either done in a reasonable time. So sorry, I'd be happy to give you a flat $30 for early access to the book and full access to the ebook when it's finished, but I'm not going to subscribe and hope it's in a good state prior to reaching that point in monthly fee. This is despite I think this book is very much what I'm looking for as I'm wanting to get into 3d graphics, but I'll pass.
  - iamcreasy 6y ago
    I've bought early access book from Manning as well, and after few months of silence the author decided to drop the chapters that I was looking forward. Left a bad taste in my mouth.
- tinnet 6y ago
  weird game theory view here, would you not be incentivized to never finish the book because people might be waiting for that 1.0 moment to cancel their subscription?
- 6y ago

The subscription model gives you access to the drafts of the chapters and full book access at 8 months. For $9 at the lowest subscription grade this is $9x8 = $72 which seems like a fair deal to me when going through amazon for similar subject titles. My experience of speaking with authors who have published books is that most of the money stays with the publisher and not the author which is a real pity. The net effect is the discouragement to write books which is counter to progress. The subscription model is really interesting to me and I hope it makes a difference to the book publishing paradigm.

dTal 6y ago
Surely the issues of "publisher as middleman" and "book-by-subscription" are orthogonal?
- dragandj 6y ago
  Yes, but the main goal of these subscriptions is to fund my work on the free open source libraries related to the book. You get the book, AND the active development of the libraries.
  - enriquto 6y ago
    I would only buy the book if you put the pdf freely downloadable on your website (I systematically do that to support authors, because I love "dead trees").
cyberdrunk 6y ago
Best books are often written by academics, who get paid to work on them by their university. The royalties are just some nice extra income.

devnonymous 6y ago

Weren't they always ? ...if you consider editions. Which essentially is what the author's promoting - access to draft editions (and presumably updates, post-release -- this wasn't clear).

theshadowknows 6y ago
Exactly. Books have always been subscription based. Difference is it’s not monthly. But for that monthly subscription you get so much. Plus the good feels knowing you’re supporting some great open source work.

throwgeorge 6y ago

lol weren't the original subscriptions newspapers e.g. serial distributions of books like david copperfield?

dragandj 6y ago

Author here. Please consider an alternative viewpoint: you can try the book draft for $9, and if you don't like it, just don't continue subscription. Total cost: $9. If you like the book, please consider that 100% of the book proceeds go towards the development of related free open source libraries https://github.com/uncomplicate https://github.com/uncomplicate

KallDrexx 6y ago
I've bought plenty of MEAP books at Manning that were incomplete. The difference is that I only had to pay the $30-40 (normal book price) one time and never think about it again, and new revisions would just be delivered to me. There have been several early access books where the author needed to take a (well deserved) break, or be slow at delivering new chapters because of other revisionary work. This has sometimes meant a few months without new content, which I was OK with in that model. In this model I could easily end up spending way more than than that, and every month I have to make a decision if it's worth cancelling. Not only that you have another book on there that's "early access too" so you are juggling two books (and books are not trivial things to write and get finished/polished). So how am I to expect you'll get either done in a reasonable time. So sorry, I'd be happy to give you a flat $30 for early access to the book and full access to the ebook when it's finished, but I'm not going to subscribe and hope it's in a good state prior to reaching that point in monthly fee. This is despite I think this book is very much what I'm looking for as I'm wanting to get into 3d graphics, but I'll pass.
- iamcreasy 6y ago
  I've bought early access book from Manning as well, and after few months of silence the author decided to drop the chapters that I was looking forward. Left a bad taste in my mouth.
tinnet 6y ago
weird game theory view here, would you not be incentivized to never finish the book because people might be waiting for that 1.0 moment to cancel their subscription?
6y ago