So... what is the fixed cost of the PDF version? Seems like that could be a good solution! Now we can even do some wild things with video editing packages... so maybe we will see a revival of Techspedition?
John Farrar > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf > Of Hal Helms > Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 6:32 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: RE: [CFCDev] Free vs. Paid Training for CF frameworks WAS State > of Coldfusion UI Development > > > Nando, > > I don't know how many people will understand what you're saying, but I am > in > complete agreement with you. A few years back in the Fusebox world, it > became very fashionable to lament that John and I were in it for the > money. > The Fusebox book costs $85? Absurd! A ripoff. What people didn't realize, > even though I tried to explain it, was that the fixed costs for doing a > book > that sells 2000 or 20000 are the same, but in one case, the gross revenues > are 1/10 of the other. > > So, at $85, authors were effectively being paid minimum wage and > Techspedition made almost nothing from the sale of the book. Instead of > being seen as trying to supply info to a small community and merely trying > to recoup costs, in some corners, it was viewed as an attempt to exploit > the > community. To say that has a chilling effect on producing more books is a > gross understatement. > > This idea that things "ought" to be free, if widely adopted, will > guarantee > that very, very little of value will be produced. We can't charge for it > (that would be wrong, according to this view) and few are willing to work > together without pay to produce something. I started a Fusebox wiki some > time ago and spent probably 20+ hours on it. To my knowledge, one other > person contributed to it. > > I'm not complaining; I just think that it's easy for all of us to adopt > attitudes that, on the face, appear fine: stuff should be free. But the > law > of unintended consequences can't be ignored. Free or nothing translates to > nothing. Actually, it falls to a few people to heroically try to supply > free > training/info for the community. Joe Rinehart recently published a blog > entry saying he > > I recently purchased a copy of "Head First HTML and CSS". I know HTML and > CSS pretty well already, as I imagine most of us do. One of the reasons I > bought the book is that I am such a huge fan of the Head First series and > I > want to encourage O'Reilly to continue to produce these books. Rob > Brooks-Bilson wrote an excellent O'Reilly book on ColdFusion, but it was > never renewed due to lagging sales. > > I subscribe to CFDJ even though a lot of what's in the magazine is of not > much value to me. Occasionally, something will be helpful -- maybe very > helpful -- and that pays for the annual subscription. But I also think > that > the demise of CFDJ would be a bad thing for the CF community and I want to > do what I can to make sure that doesn't happen. > > I would love to create online training and tutorials, but there are real > and > significant costs associated with this. Will the community be willing to > pay > something for these in quantities large enough to sustain the effort? I'm > going to experiment with this. I really hope it works -- and that others > can > use the same model to share their expertise. > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------- > You are subscribed to cfcdev. To unsubscribe, send an email to > [email protected] with the words 'unsubscribe cfcdev' as the subject of > the email. > > CFCDev is run by CFCZone (www.cfczone.org) and supported by CFXHosting > (www.cfxhosting.com). > > An archive of the CFCDev list is available at www.mail- > archive.com/[email protected] > ---------------------------------------------------------- You are subscribed to cfcdev. To unsubscribe, send an email to [email protected] with the words 'unsubscribe cfcdev' as the subject of the email. CFCDev is run by CFCZone (www.cfczone.org) and supported by CFXHosting (www.cfxhosting.com). An archive of the CFCDev list is available at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
