4 ms·

I've been watching the self-publishing world lately since reading Jon Konrath's blog here: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ and I

by wmat 16y ago

I've been watching the self-publishing world lately since reading Jon Konrath's blog here: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ and I have to say, why can't I get all the programming books I want for approximately $1-$5 per book in electronic format? I'd probably buy at least 1 book/week at that price! So here's an idea for what I'd pay for, as a more technical reader: technical ebook purchasing for $1-$5 per book with the option of accessing the book via a distributed source control system. The purchase then entitles me to push errata, additions, etc. back to the author as well as to pull contributions, fixes, etc. from the readers. With each ebook major version release, I'd pay the purchase amount again to gain access to the new version. That new version may merely be all of the changes I've already had access to via source control, but payment then unlocks access to the next major branch. Patch review could even be offloaded to readers via up/down votes. My main goal here is to counteract the short half life of the majority of most technical books, benefit from the other readers as much as possible and encourage current/potential authors with appropriate payment. Call it an "o'reilly killer", or "gitbooks" or whatever. Cheers Bill

pchristensen 16y ago
I think that's taking the trend to a consumer-focused extreme that might not maximize the benefit to the author. I can see opening up your process for 50-250 "beta-testers" who need the information yesterday and are willing to put work into it. But for the most part, people willing to wait for and pay for a technical book are people who will trade money for decreased time cost. Hence a nicely packaged, structured, edited book. The bar of quality and trust is pretty high, because if either of those are compromised, then the reader is wasting time and might as well have self-taught. I'd probably buy at least 1 book/week at that price! I'm subscribed to the ebook deal of the day for O'Reilly (http://feeds.feedburner.com/oreilly/ebookdealoftheday http://feeds.feedburner.com/oreilly/ebookdealoftheday), Apress (http://www.apress.com/info/dailydeal http://www.apress.com/info/dailydeal) and Manning (http://www.manning.com/free/dotd.html http://www.manning.com/free/dotd.html) and I've purchased about 1 ebook a week this year for between $5-20 each.
- wmat 16y ago
  Perhaps you're right. I guess I'm being a little selfish in so far as what I've described is what I'd want, as a potential paying customer. I still want the structure and editing though, so I'm not sure how payment could be distributed to contributors, such as editors. Perhaps my model would be most applicable to those who self-publish without external contributors. I've looked at the O'Reilly and others deals-of-the-day and ebook promotions and they almost always are to expensive, or are stale.
  - pchristensen 16y ago
    The ebook deals are about creating a new market (patient, price sensitive buyers)for existing products. Your proposal is for entirely new products, and I think it's unlikely that the existing publishing companies will change enough to produce them. There is something to the idea, and would probably best be done by the communities surrounding open source products. Don't let this idea die.

by wmat 16y ago

pchristensen 16y ago

I think that's taking the trend to a consumer-focused extreme that might not maximize the benefit to the author. I can see opening up your process for 50-250 "beta-testers" who need the information yesterday and are willing to put work into it. But for the most part, people willing to wait for and pay for a technical book are people who will trade money for decreased time cost. Hence a nicely packaged, structured, edited book. The bar of quality and trust is pretty high, because if either of those are compromised, then the reader is wasting time and might as well have self-taught. I'd probably buy at least 1 book/week at that price! I'm subscribed to the ebook deal of the day for O'Reilly (http://feeds.feedburner.com/oreilly/ebookdealoftheday http://feeds.feedburner.com/oreilly/ebookdealoftheday), Apress (http://www.apress.com/info/dailydeal http://www.apress.com/info/dailydeal) and Manning (http://www.manning.com/free/dotd.html http://www.manning.com/free/dotd.html) and I've purchased about 1 ebook a week this year for between $5-20 each.

wmat 16y ago
Perhaps you're right. I guess I'm being a little selfish in so far as what I've described is what I'd want, as a potential paying customer. I still want the structure and editing though, so I'm not sure how payment could be distributed to contributors, such as editors. Perhaps my model would be most applicable to those who self-publish without external contributors. I've looked at the O'Reilly and others deals-of-the-day and ebook promotions and they almost always are to expensive, or are stale.
- pchristensen 16y ago
  The ebook deals are about creating a new market (patient, price sensitive buyers)for existing products. Your proposal is for entirely new products, and I think it's unlikely that the existing publishing companies will change enough to produce them. There is something to the idea, and would probably best be done by the communities surrounding open source products. Don't let this idea die.