OT: Quantum Books closing...

[Ted Roche]

Ben Scott wrote:

> On 10/14/07, Ted Roche <tedroche at tedroche.com> 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