Since I have sent this info before, I do not want to be repeating myself, but there are always new folks on the list, so first I'll pass this along--
If you do get a new person in your shop and want a short overview to get them started, check out my little "Trilogy" at http://www.tincat-group.com/mv/trilogy.html [I have to fix some javascript somewhere, so it might be irritating go from one "book" to the next] When I visited with InterSystems folks, one of them told me this was a big help. I did at least as much QA on the content as done with O'Reilly books, I suspect (these are actualhy printed in hard copy on business card sized cards, so the web was after-the-fact and not nicely implemented, by me, I'll admit). I, too, researched the market for books and decided to do short book "chapters" in blog format instead last year. That was not O'Reilly type content, however. My two-year-old assessment was the same as Tim O'Reilly's, that I couldn't afford to lose that much. 1000 pre-sold copies might make a self-published book worthwhile, but when it comes to meaty content that is not just introductory info that could be found in U2 manuals, on how to write U2-based software, for example, each MV product really does client/server and other important aspects differently. If you show how every MV database provider does "it" then most folks will only care about 1/nth of the book, perhaps not enough to buy it. Since U2 has the bulk of the market at this point, it could be U2-specific with one part UniData, one UniVerse, and another using the shared commands and API's, with perhaps a 4th section on integrating with various 3rd party tools. This gives you a market of those who are U2 customers who write software or integrate software with U2. How many would that be? Any guesses? Narrow that down further to those who think they need to get more information than what is already comning at them from many directions. Narrow that to those who like to learn by reading. Narrow further to those who have either company or personal dollars to spend. Narrow that to those who are aware that they could buy such a book. Narrow that down to those who are able to get that purchase to the top of their "to do" list and make work of ordering it. I would be interested in seeing estimates attached to the points in that prospective customer funnel if anyone is game to give it a try. This is overly simplistic, but...If you take a relatively high number, such as a profit of $5.00/book and the self-publishing author gets all of that, and if it takes the author 1 year to get the book written, edited, published and distributed (very difficult to do it in less time, I suspect), then 10,000 books need to be sold for $50,000 for that year of work. Did we end up with 10,000 at the end of that funnel? --dawn -- Dawn M. Wolthuis Tincat Group, Inc. Take and give some delight today On 7/18/07, Smith, Robert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Charles, I think there may be a larger potential audience than Tim is aware of. I believe some topical areas may sell faster than others. And all together, the total volume eventually sold of U2 books will not reach one-sixty-fourth the level of the pending Harry Potter book. Still, I predict that a fair number of U2 books could be sold. I've seen books for just about every other subject under the sun being published recently...some about total nonsense. Books that reach general circulation. The U2 environment is a thriving entity, with world wide scope, with many incredibly intelligent practitioners, whose engines (Universe and Unidata) are marketed by one of the largest IT firms in the world. Why can't one or two of these new books be U2 related? It would be nice to supplement any training that a new employee receives, with books related to the U2 environment. Rob -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Charles Barouch Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 9:58 AM To: [email protected] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [U2] UniData 7.1 vs. MS SQL 2005 performance Robert, There is a firmly held belief that if books were available, that we, as a group, are too cheap to buy them. Clif Oliver (who ran this list for 9 years) used to edit a Pick series of O'Reilly. When I contacted Tim O'Reilly about a year ago, proposing new MV books, he said that he'd love to, but he can't afford to lose that kind of money. If you want books, we need to commit to publishers. I'm sure Brian would be willing to put up a sign-up sheet on U2UG.org, so we can submit a list of people who promise to buy at least one copy if a publisher will print a new book. I think a pre-order of 1K copies would get us some traction. Are we willing to spend $15 to $50 a piece for a new U2 book? I don't think they'll have trouble finding willing writers. -- Charles Barouch [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Consulting (718) 762-3884x1
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