One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is whether it makes sense to continue this blog past the completion or publication of the book. Increasingly, I think it does. (Though some argument could be made about folding it into the SuperSite I guess. That’s just details.)
As we’ve discussed somewhat, paper-based publishing is a dead-end. And the very notion that a gadget buyer would somehow what to learn about their new toy via a 450 page stack of paper that is about 10 times the size of the phone and 20 times as heavy is somewhat ludicrous.
Plus books are out of date the second they’re published. Looking back on Windows 7 Secrets, there’s so much new information already, and more to come with Windows Live Wave 4 (and other updates) that I’m uncomfortable not updating it. (The publisher isn’t so interested.) As someone who came of age in the Internet era, career-wise, it’s hard for me to leave it as-is.
I’m wondering–and will ask–if the publisher would let me update the book on my own (especially if they have no intention of ever updating the book). One idea I have (beyond obvious things like the web) is self-published mini-books that could replace chapters in the book. Consider 14 (“Microsoft Zune: A Digital Media Alternative”): Since the book was published, Microsoft has shipped Zune 4.0 and various updates to that. They’ll probably ship Zune 5 in September alongside Windows Phone 7. But the book covers Zune 3.x. What if I rewrote that chapter for the latest version and let people buy electronic copies or even printed mini-books online? Maybe for a couple of dollars each, something inexpensive.
It’s a thought. But the publisher owns the existing content so I’d have to be careful about that. (Side thought: Imagine Windows 7 Secrets available as a box set, where each chapter was it’s own mini-book. You could mix and match–just get the stuff you really want, saving money–and replace chapters easily as they were updated. And because each mini book would be so small and light, they’d be easy to carry around.)
Anyway. With regards to this book, it’s pretty clear to me that some post-publication content is in order. And I’m interested in this topic enough to keep it going. I’m not sure that I’ll have do the general purpose blog thing here per se. But I do intend to keep up on it.
Another thought. My very first book was about Visual Basic 3, as we discussed previously in How I started writing. A while back, as I began investigating Apple’s iPhone development tools, I thought it might be interesting to update the code from that first VB book to run on the iPhone; I could adapt each project to Objective-C and simultaneously teach myself the environment and create modern projects that might benefit others. Now, of course, I’m thinking that Windows Phone/Silveright would be a better outlet for this.
There are rights issues here, and while the VB book is long gone, it’s possible/likely that the successor to Benjamin-Cummings still owns the rights to that content. (It’s possible that we retained the rights though, I’ll have to find out.) If that is the case, I (maybe?) can’t publish those projects in the book. But I bet I could publish them here on the blog as part of an ongoing “Learn how to develop for Windows Phone” series.
Actually, even if they do own the original stuff, re-doing it from scratch for a new environment is likely OK. I’ll mull this over. And of course, if you have any thoughts about any of this, please do let me know.
I think it would make perfect sense to keep this going after the book is published. If the platform thrives and evolves like I thing we all hope it will, there will be plenty of developments to keep your audience up to date on; development included as you mentioned.
And if the platform fails? Well, that will just make the decision to shut the blog down a little bit easier :)
Keep up the good work, your writing is a joy to read.
Paul, you have stumbled into a minefield of issues which need to be resolved. First, I agree that paper publishing as we know it is dying, but I have to admit that I would rather read an article on paper than on a screen. I expect that to change when my iPad 3G finally arrives this week. I think that presentation is almost as important as content in making me want to consume media.
I have vinyl albums and CDs of the same song by the same artist. I have Best Of compilations that includes duplicate tracks. But if I d/l an mp3 from Soulseek or a friend’s thumbdrive, I am literally a criminal in the eyes of the RIAA even though I own three copies of the song.
I listen to gobs of Audible books. I just went out and purchased the hardcover of “Switch” just so I could review the material. I paid $9.95 for the Audible and $26 for the book at a local B&N. It wasn’t the money as much as the principle that pissed me off. What if it had been the Kindle version? I would have the reference, but I probably would not have finished the book since I cannot sit down for 8-10 hours with a book.
If I had found the book on the train and read it, that would be completely legal. If I then gave it to a friend and he read it, same thing. If I was the 30th person to check it out of the library and read it, same thing. But if I put the Audible file on a co-worker’s iPod, I am stealing. Makes sense doesn’t it?
I think we are at the point that we need to purchase a media-agnostic license for a publication or work. That way, I can consume it however I desire, whenever I desire. We could even have it set so that while I am ‘reading’ a book, no one else with that license can ‘read’ it, but when I am done, others could avail themselves of the license.
I mean, seriously, would ANYONE go out and actually purchase that VB book you wrote so many years ago? So what is the loss by allowing Fair Use DRM. (Wow, that is an over-used meaningless term isn’t it??? Fair Use?)
Anyhow, with dynamic digital media, the old rules just do not apply. I like your idea about updating content. I bought a 500 page tome on Hyper-V about a month before R2 was RTM’d. As I now read the book, I think to myself “I wonder if they changed that in R2?” I guaran-damn-tee you that I am not going to buy the same book in an R2 edition again. Nope, wouldn’t be prudent….
Fight the good fight!
Randy
Thanks.. Yeah “media agnostic” is sort of where my thinking is these days.
I think that mini-books are an excellent ideia Paul, or better yet, instead of a paper version why not go with an e-book, and down the road on demand upgrade of individual chapters for a couple of bucks or so, i think you got a winner here, you just have to convince the publisher to do it though, and that will be difficult part.
Regards.
It’d be best to keep the site going. Folding it into the supersite is an option but right now I like how it’s on it’s own and hasn’t brought in any of the silly posters from over there (though I know you mod it all now, thx.)
If MS updates WP7 often, and I hope they do (no real choice), then you’ll have to stay ontop of it with the site at least, and if your publisher lets you, you can do that updated per chapter sale you talk about. Good idea imo.
You make a lot of sense on this post; very insightful.
I use Safari Books online now, instead of buying new books. I just download the chapters I want, and ignore the rest. When the chapter goes out of date, I can simply delete it, or move it to an archive folder (after all, we are only talking disk space here). I really think you should consider selling mini-books on your SuperSite for Windows (that would be more in depth than your posted articles). Charge a minimal fee, like $5 per book (I’ve seen this model work on other sites). I think you would do well.
Personally, I think you should forget the paper version. Go down the ebook route. I’d love to see the book on the kindle or better still the Apple BookStore :-)
Failing that, why not think about making the site into hybrid free/paywall site. Publish articles you want for free, then add the extra book contents behind a pay by article/subscription service.
I guess it depends on the contract with your publisher, but I really think self publish paid content is the way these things will go in the nit too distant future.
Well, there’s not much I can do about this book. It’s going to be a book. But I’m trying to think past that, and think about how this stuff can work going forward. The ideal situation would be for the publishing company to agree to this future and have them participate. The content should just be available all over the place, in my opinion.
Paul, I haven’t any idea why you’re publishing with paper; you can self-publish through Amazon very easily. An you’ll retain 70% of the retail price. Amazon even permits you to decide what price you want to sell at (depending on the size of the file, of course.
I wouldn’t advise unknown authors to try this, but you have a built-in audience–thousands of people and devotees who follow you on several venues. And you can update your digital book as you see fit; the only issue is that when you update the digital version, it may be unavailable for two or three days. Big deal. If you’re using Word as your processor, you simply upload the digital file and Amazion converts it to the E-reader format. It can be downloaded by consumers of iPhones, iPads, and several other devices, including Kindle for the PC app, which is available and FREE.
I have virtually no followers, and I’ve been able to sell quite a few copies of a fictional short story I recently uploaded to Amazon. Moreover, the fictional piece had first appeared in a magazine that paid me for it several years ago. They’ve since gone under (surprise) and I’m making money without writing another word. It’s doing well enough that I’m in the middle of another fictional piece (short story again).
I hope that you don’t mind the unsolicited advice.
One caveat is that you must proofread and edit your own work. Any mistakes in your text will show up in the finished product. Of course, you can make corrections afterward, but the book will be unavailable for a day or two.
Thanks … I think I will get there.
And I’m absolutely looking for advice/feedback. No worries there.
Traditional books have never really paid off for me in a meaningful way. It would be interesting to offer content in different ways, and ideally whoever wanted it would be able to get it in whatever form they preferred.
Periodic paid updates to an ebook would be my preference. The ebook should also have links to a blog/website for the rest of the story, updates in progress, and dialog with the author. As you noted, a reference book begins to obsolete from the moment it goes to press.
(Side thought: Imagine Windows 7 Secrets available as a box set, where each chapter was it’s own mini-book. You could mix and match–just get the stuff you really want, saving money–and replace chapters easily as they were updated. And because each mini book would be so small and light, they’d be easy to carry around.)
Paul, this make a whole lot of sense. And I agree, publishing tech-tomes is an old model. The only reason I still buy paper is so that I can mark it up to my satisfaction.
I don’t think you can just give up on paper, but with PDFs and other publishing technology, there is NO reason not to do digital publishing.
I think that once the iPad and other technology like it becomes mainstream, there will be so many ways to interact with published works like Tweeting a paragraph or a page and allowing followers or friends to click thru and read the page. What if you could annotate a page of a book with a highlighter or margin notes and then link that to friends? (Imagine someone linking to a page, liking what they see and buying it on the spot for $9.95.)
I mean think about it…If I bought Paul’s W7 Secrets book and one of my techs had a problem, I could browse his book or search it for a specific answer. Once I found the answer, I could highlight it and forward the page to my tech. Oooh, oooh, that is copyright infringement says the publisher. Well, what if I photocopied the text and faxed it to him? What if I copied it verbatim and emailed him with the text? Still an infringement? What if I let him use the book after I put in a sticky note on the page? In the end, what is the difference in the result?
We have reached an inflection point in publishing and once a few publishers totally embrace new-media, they will prolly rule the world (at least until the next big thing comes along.)
What I don’t get is that if you think paper-publishing is a dead-end and it’s never paid off for you in a meaningful way, why are you spending the time writing another book in the same manner?
Either you’re under a contractual agreement with your publisher or your employer is paying you regardless of the success (or otherwise) of the book. Fair enough.
But, I think it’s time you seriously engage with electronic publishing – that is the future and if anyone is likely to be accepting of that mode, it is your readers. They are, by definition, early adopters and/or have a genuine interest in technology and Microsoft products. So why not indulge their tastes with an eBook that can be updated at will and at trivial cost, but which also has the potential to sell many more copies?
To me, it seems like a no-brainer. At the end of the day, you want your work to be read by as many people as possible. Limiting yourself to the paper world is not going to get you as much spread because it no longer makes sense – in a world with ubiquitous high speed broadband & 3G – to seek advice from a paper book on how to solve a problem with your phone or your computer. These days, people go online for those solutions. So, Paul, give people what they want. :)
This is something I’ll be writing more about.
From a financial perspective, when everything was going great (2 years ago), the thought of killing myself for three months over a $25,000 advance with absolutely no chance of future money didn’t make a lot of sense, sure. But I did it for the Vista book because I thought it was going to be huge (it wasn’t), I did it for the SP1 edition of the Vista book because I wanted to get the book “right” (which I think I did), and I did it for Windows 7 because I felt like it would be easy to update the Vista book to that version (it wasn’t). I’m doing it for Windows Phone for two reasons: I’m genuinely excited about the product and because I need the money (which is less than what I got for the Vista/7 books).
I probably don’t have to explain the excitement over technology part. But things have changed, and badly so, from a financial perspective. Ad revenues–the only way I get paid for the SuperSite–is down dramatically over the past two years, though there are signs of improvement this year at last. I’ve agreed to do some book stuff this year that I might not have done otherwise simply because it makes sense financially. I’ve been in the red for too long.
That said, I’m open to other publishing avenues and, as noted previously, am actively examining those right now. I think you can expect to hear some major news from me this year with regards to changes in this area, though I don’t want to get too ahead of things right now. For now, I’m doing this book and my usual stuff online. But I’d like to expand things in such a way that whatever content I create can be published in numerous ways so that people who want to read it can do so wherever/whenever they want. The web will just be part of that.
It’s good to hear that ad revenues have picked up for you. I’m in Australia, and I have to say that we haven’t felt the hit as hard as you guys, so in one way I’m grateful but on the other hand it’s not nice seeing decent people lose money because overzealous investors decided to play one bet too many and destroy the world economy in the process.
It looks like your considering some choices that will affect your life, your family, and your readers, too, I suspect. But I have a feeling that your choices will be good. It’s interesting to note, perhaps, that the digital revolution has influenced and changed the delivery of music, movies, and the publishing. I think you’re wise to be flexible and embrace the era with alacrity and mettle.
Best to you.
Thanks.. Yeah, it’s not easy when you consider the very real costs involved.
On the other hand, I’ve arguably when on the web/digital side for a long time. Most of my yearly income has been derived from online publications for years now. But I think it’s a mistake to have all your eggs in one basket, so to speak, and that’s true whether you’re talking about distribution forms (paper books, bookazines, web, iPad/custom apps, etc.) or anything else.
Paul, just be the best that you can be in all you do, and you’re talented enough to be even more successful than you were in the past. I’ m confident that you can and will do it.
Well, this is turning into a self-help group now, isn’t it? :) Thanks, seriously.
Transitioning from print media to the web makes a whole lot of sense. One suggestion worth considering: if someone buys the entire e-book (say Windows 8 Secrets), they would be entitled to chapter updates for some specified time — or even forever. Given the limited lifetime of the software you write about lifetime updates would work. You’re unlikely to continue updating Windows 7 Secrets once Windows 8 Secrets is out. Eliminating the publisher and substituting entire e-books or chapter by chapter e-books would benefit you and your readers.
Furthermore it might not only increase sales but increase the dollar amount which accrues to you. Perhaps you’d be able to begin making up for lost ad revenue. Your web presence would give you a tremendous advantage including frequent plugs on Windows Weekly.
Also, I endorse your thought that owning printed books that move toward obsolescence the day they go to the publisher makes little sense. Why would I want to refer to an out-of-date topic a few months later?
This may prove to be your best idea since hooking up with TWIT!
Paul, I heard you talking about this with Leo on Windows Weekly (for those interested in hearing it: http://twit.tv/ww150) and I read your post and comments the other day. I’ve been doing small and self-publishing for about 10 years, and a lot has changed since we first started.
I still have boxes of books in my garage from our first books 10 years ago. Back then you had to somewhat larger print runs to have the cost per book low enough to hope of breaking even.
Everyone knows that publishing has been changing, but I recently ran across a short article that really sums up the self-publishing and niche publishing market, as it compares to traditional publishing: http://ht.ly/1EHnk
The Publishers Weekly article says that tech self-publishing books were up 11% in 2009. To sum up the article: Self-Published books outranked Traditional y-Published books by 476,093 titles in 2009.
So, I would encourage you to continue pursuing your ambition to self-publish. It seems the trend is overwhelmingly in your favor. As you know,Gina Trapani has self-published her last few books.
I think that it would be very interesting to publish tech books in almost a magazine subscription way, where you buy the subscription for a period of time, and you get monthly updates, versions, or chapters of the book as things change.
Have fun with it. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
Thanks for this. –Paul
What keeps me buying books in bound form is that I like to mark and annotate as I read. My Windows 7 Secrets has numerous dog-eared pages, post-it notes stuck to pages, underlining, and a variety of other marks.
If I could find an ebook reader that would allow some of this functionality, I would be less reluctant to make the transition. I have a few Kindle books on my PC, but like all Kindle books, no annotating.
adamsjw2,
This is why I think that the iPad with the right kind of reader that allows color highlighting and inking, plus sticky notes and dynamic bookmarks will be a game changer.
Maybe content about using a Windows Phone could be delivered via a Windows Phone app?