Ted Roche
Mon, 15 Oct 2007 06:05:04 -0700
Ben Scott wrote: > On 10/14/07, Ted Roche <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> I still think there needs to be an economic model for writers of >> technical books to go to the bother of writing them... >> Writing well is a craft and an art, and one that deserves compensation. > > #ifdef MOLOTOV_COCKTAIL > > Isn't that the chief objection to Free/Open Source Software, too? > > #endif > lol! Interesting parallel. Parallel, though, not the same fit. Programming is an art and a craft that deserves compensation, too. Just as a programmer writes a program to solve their itch, a book writer might use her own book to refresh her memory, but it's not as clear a case of self-benefit, imho. Programmers use their program to accomplish a goal. When an author completes a book, it's a bit more of an accomplishment, and not something likely to be reused in the same manner. I co-wrote the "Hacker's Guide to Visual FoxPro" because I couldn't possibly remember all the handy little tricks I knew at the same time or had learned once over a 10+ year career. So I wrote them all down. Other people found that useful, too. If I was (were?) to do it today, I'd create a wiki. And quite likely do it in an Open and Free way. In that case, yes, very similar to Open Source. Scratch my own itch, ship early, ship often, many eyes make great literature, and all that. That's for a reference manual. And the FOSS model works well because I really made my business doing something else, so sharing my knowledge just got me an 800-page credential out there. For a tutorial on how to use a product, there surely are a lot of HOWTOs out there, but I don't see the same cohesion I see in the good programming books. Concepts and theory and best practices and pointers all take a lot of time to document. I see this as a place where direct compensation might help. The last model is the recipe book, think "Knoppix Hacks" as an example. This, too can fit in a wiki / CMS. It's certainly possible that the future won't include any full-time technical book writers, and that might not be a bad thing. There are people who just rehash the manuals and publish it as their own. But there are some good insightful writers who just may not see a good economic model for their work, and that would be too bad. I've seen the formal publishing model work well, where technical reviewers can really inspire an author to do their best work, where an editor can clean up the prose enormously, and a skilled layout staff can make the finished product a pleasure to read. That's never been the majority of the books by any means, and far too many "day and date" books ship with poorly-written materials by too many authors who failed to coordinate their efforts and a publisher who just prints it all and ships. I think the paper book medium is too expensive in terms of resources and energy and time to continue being the predominant media of the technical 'book' industry, but I think there will be some time before the economics of the new market can be worked out. -- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/