Dr. Dobb's Journal - December 2007 - (Page 18)

d12lead_p3ma.qxp 10/17/07 11:22 AM Page 18 Increased client demand for modeling forecasting optimization and data mining functionality “Looking at Amazon’s computer books bestseller list, it is apparent that digital photography in general, and Adobe Photoshop in particular, will be the killer-category-withina-category that will drive sales over all. Of Amazon’s top 25 bestselling computer books, nine are digital photography titles, and six of those are Adobe Photoshop.” Digital photography, which is not what I think of when I think of computer technology, outpaces all “real” computer topics in book sales. But even there, you can sense change in the wind: Earlier I mentioned a friend who is making a good living self-publishing books online. That’s Thom Hogan, and his books are Nikon digital and film camera guides published in e-book form on CDROM and sold only through his website (www.bythom.com). Thom’s doing his part to reinvent the category. (not yet a book) at ckwebb.com/books/ from-blogs-to-books-questions-from-blogher. Even pros can stumble in this changing field: Seth Godin (sethgodin.typepad.com/ seths_blog/2007/02/please_dont_buy.html) learned the hard way just what a Creative Why do so many computer books suck? Reinventing the Book So what does “reinventing the category” mean in technological terms? Is the future of the book a PDF on your PDA? Actually that particular combination leaves something to be desired, but the PDF format is currently part of the thinking of most innovators in publishing “Because technology changes rapidly, we feel that information should be made available rapidly,” Thomas says. “We make all our books available as PDFs, so they can be downloaded immediately. We also make many of our books available online before they are even finished. This gives our readers access to information far, far earlier than if they’d had to wait for the book to get finished, go through production, and then conventional distribution. It also gives our authors invaluable feedback during the writing process—our readers are not shy when it comes to pointing out ways in which beta books can be improved.” And on that blog-to-book thing: It’s real. Ellen Gerstein, who actually turns blogs into books, advises, if you want to leverage your blog, that “niche is a good thing.” Wiley Book editor Chris Webb reveals that on his blog BUY OR BUILD ? * To help you decide, download the “Buy or Build” worksheet from Numerical Algorithms Group at: www.nag.com/buyorbuild *and debug, then cross your ÀQJHUVWKHQ rebuild, then weep and . . . R E SU LT S MAT T E R. T RUST NAG. in your products has you asking: should I . . . Commons license means. And Google hasn’t exactly done a perfect job with Google Books, its foray into the field, which Charles Petzold calls “a massive heap of digitized books and periodicals thrown together with a complete disregard for what these objects actually are and when they were published.” Ouch. Okay, but… Computer book author Rose Kelleher addresses that question directly at www.ramblingrose.com/ComputerBooks.h tm, one of her points being that traditional publishers pay the same royalty for a technical book that will be dead when the next rev of the product comes out as for a novel that could stay in print till it’s out of copyright. “The economics of the situation demand that larger publishers put out X number of books a year,” Dave Thomas says, “regardless of topic or quality.” I’ve never quite understood that, but it may be moot at this point. And, Thomas says, “small publishers can be much more selective.” Fewer computer books, but better? As a writer, I take that as a challenge. As a reader, I take it as good news. And the field of computer book publishing could use some of that. DDJ 18 Dr. Dobb’s Journal l www.ddj.com l December 2007 http://ckwebb.com/books/from-blogs-to-books-questions-from-blogher http://ckwebb.com/books/from-blogs-to-books-questions-from-blogher http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/02/please_dont_buy.html http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/02/please_dont_buy.html http://www.bythom.com http://www.ramblingrose.com/ComputerBooks.htm http://www.ramblingrose.com/ComputerBooks.htm http://www.nag.com/buyorbuild http://www.nag.com/buyorbuild http://www.ddj.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Dr. Dobb's Journal - December 2007

Dr. Dobb's Journal - December 2007 Contents Hmmmm Alia Vox Developer Diaries Developer’s Notebook Computer Books: Reading Between the Lines Conversations Query Anything with SQLite XQuery Web Maps with the Google Map API OpenALM and Its Manifesto Transactional Programming Effective Concurrency The Agile Edge Swaine’s Flames

Dr. Dobb's Journal - December 2007

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