[Zope-dev] please publish new edition of Zope Book often

Chris McDonough chrism@zope.com
20 Apr 2003 18:14:50 -0400


I don't know about the financial equation of the last publishing.  Zope
Corporation does not directly support the editing of the Zope Book any
longer and hasn't for some time now.  The community has picked up its
maintenance since.

That's sort of where the problem lies.  I've organized the editing of
the book since ZC dropped it, but really don't want to deal with the
hassle of negotiating with a publisher on behalf of the book as its
agent. 

I think it'd be great to have this thing paper-published by someone.  
If anybody wants to contact the contributors and negotiate releases from
them, contact a publisher, negotiate financials, etc. etc., I think it'd
be great.  As long as I don't have to do it. ;-)

- C

On Sat, 2003-04-19 at 12:29, Craeg K Strong wrote:
> PDF would help, as its more easily printed out. 
> 
> However, concerns had to do more with marketing than technology.
> We should not underestimate the value of seeing
> 
> "The Zope Book, 3rd edition  (NEW: includes comprehensive coverage of 
> Zope 2.6)"
> 
> prominently on the shelf at B&N (or virtual shelf at Amazon).  
> 
> I appreciate that the value of this is difficult to reduce to a set of 
> net present value weighted cash
> flows, while the costs are (too) easily calculable.   As a consultant, I 
> confront issues like
> this every day, as I propose new projects that may not realize net 
> benefits in 30 days or less :-{
> 
> Did the costs of getting the first edition printed really outweigh the 
> proceeds that badly?
> 
> If not, perhaps you could get a 2.6 or 2.7 edition paper-published as 
> the last 2.x paper edition,
> and the next one would cover X3...
> 
> --Craeg
> 
> PS If addl technical reviewers would help, count me in.
> 
> Chris McDonough wrote:
> 
> >Would a PDF version do?  There are no plans to paper-publish the 2.6 or
> >further editions of the book.  I've been threatening to finish the 2.6
> >edition for a while (I've been procrastinating a bit).  But I could roll
> >a PDF out of what we have very quickly.  I might just call it "done" at
> >that point.
> >
> >On Fri, 2003-04-18 at 23:02, Craeg Strong wrote:
> >  
> >
> >>Hello:
> >>
> >>I use the on-line version of The Zope Book all the time
> >>as a reference and guidebook.  However, sometimes its
> >>just more convenient to have docs in paper book form.
> >>
> >>In fact, even though The Zope Book is way out of date,
> >>( and any newer version would become out of date very
> >>quickly ), I still recommend it to clients over any
> >>of the other books covering Zope.
> >>
> >>I, for one, would love to see a new edition of
> >>The Zope Book published out on a regular basis,
> >>say once a year or thereabouts.  
> >>
> >>We have had to deal with many complaints about the 
> >>out-of-date-ness of The Zope Book
> >>from our customers.  For example, we have just
> >>recently won a large contract using Zope technology
> >>for which this is an issue.
> >>
> >>So, how about it?    I personally feel this is a
> >>very important step on the "10x growth" road.
> >>
> >>2c,
> >>
> >>--Craeg
> >>    
> >>
> 
> 
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