Re: New books and new authors - and experience?
- From: Rachel Carmichael <wisernet100@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 02:43:06 -0800 (PST)
Most authors aren't necessarily consultants. Some are yes. Some aren't.
And the DBA at the company looking to hire you (consultant or
full-time) may know who you are because of your books. Upper management
rarely does.
--- Ryan <ryan.gaffuri@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> it seems to me that most authors are consultant. How much does it
> help to
> market yourself to have a book?
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Freeman Robert - IL" <FREEMANR@xxxxxxxx>
> To: "'Melanie Caffrey '" <melanie_caffrey@xxxxxxxxx>;
> <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 8:23 PM
> Subject: RE: New books and new authors - and experience?
>
>
> > Good point about the money. Mike Ault and I joke on occation that
> when we
> > write, we are doing so for something akin to minimum wage. I've not
> gotten
> > rich off of any of my books. Bottom line is that an Oracle book, a
> book
> that
> > sells really well, is going to sell maybe 5-10 thousand copies...
> the
> (few,
> > maybe 1 in 20) better sellers will do maybe 20k+ and some like
> Loney's
> > (maybe 1 in 100?) will do much better than that (but that is rare
> rare).
> >
> > When you are making a buck or two a book (or less if you have
> co-authors),
> > that dosen't add up that fast over say 4-5 years....
> >
> > Then, there was the publisher that went broke and nobody got
> ANYTHING for
> > their efforts....
> >
> > Robert
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Melanie Caffrey
> > To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Sent: 3/16/2004 6:55 PM
> > Subject: Re: New books and new authors - and experience?
> >
> > Mogens,
> >
> > I agree. It was one of the hot topics at the
> > publisher's seminar this past September at
> > OracleWorld. And I would say that most authors or
> > publishers at that seminar would agree with you.
> >
> > Since Oracle customers and users have less money to
> > play with these days, they are becoming decidedly more
> > savvy about which books they actually purchase.
> >
> > And as for this statement:
> >
> > "You're approached by a publisher who wants to publish
> > fast and make lots of money for them and you."
> >
> > Lots of money?? What fantasy are you living in? :-)
> >
> > Maybe I need a definition of *lots of money*.
> >
> > Seriously though, I believe that authors ultimately
> > write books to learn (whatever that may mean to them
> > at the time.) However, I also agree with you that not
> > all learning experiences are stable enough (or
> > perhaps, complete enough) to be shared with a general
> > user community.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Melanie
> >
> > --- Mogens_Norgaard <mln@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > Friends,
> > >
> > > I recently wrote this message, but then sent it just
> > > to myself in order
> > > not to offend anyone or perhaps be misunderstood.
> > >
> > > But after 14 days with this message in my inbox, I
> > > have decided to go
> > > ahead and send it to the list:
> > >
> > =================================================================
> > >
> > > It's becoming a habit to churn out books about
> > > topics that cannot
> > > possibly have been explored yet. And certainly not
> > > in any scientific manner.
> > >
> > > How on Earth can we have books out with the word
> > > "10g" on the cover when
> > > 10g just came out, and we all know, that getting
> > > something as basic as
> > > OEM (and certainly AWR/ADDM/ASH/Advisor services)
> > > to work during the
> > > Beta phase has been damned near impossible? If that
> > > is the case, how can
> > > the books talk in detail about how fantastic these
> > > features are?
> > > Sandra's last name is...
> > >
> > > I don't really care whether the books were
> > > "betatized" or not, or
> > > however various authors try to impress on people
> > > that their books are
> > > better than the other's. These are all books written
> > > by people without
> > > real experience in 10g (because it's bloody well
> > > impossible to HAVE real
> > > experience yet!) talking about people writing books
> > > about something they
> > > don't know enough about yet...
> > >
> > > I fully understand Oracle's wishes here. I fully
> > > understand the
> > > publisher's wishes here. I might even understand the
> > > author's wishes
> > > here (or maybe not). But it's too much now. iAS.
> > >
> > > I think it's time for all of us to stop buying
> > > sensationalist or
> > > un-finished or whatever books and wait until books
> > > by people who've
> > > actually done real work, in the real world, with 10g
> > > appear.
> > >
> > > Hands down: Shouldn't we all be reading James
> > > Morle's book (titled *8i*)
> > > or Jonathan's (titled *8i*) and LEARNING real stuff
> > > instead of just
> > > running around in real and virtual book stores,
> > > looking for new sound
> > > bites or cut/paste's from Oracle's own
> > > documentation?
> > >
> > > Read Oracle's documentation first, try out 10g, then
> > > see if anybody with
> > > REAL experience has written a book.
> > >
> > > Of course they haven't. They don't exist, since the
> > > Oracle version
> > > hasn't been out yet.
> > >
> > > Oh, I know how this happens. Been there. You're
> > > approached by a
> > > publisher who wants to publish fast and make lots of
> > > money for them and
> > > you. If you don't say NO, then you're caught between
> > > delivering
> > > SOMETHING and being blasted by the publisher. So you
> > > choose - perhaps -
> > > to generate text and examples and stuff that make it
> > > appear as if you
> > > actually WORKED with this new version of Oracle.
> > >
> > > Of course you didn't. Ask the authors what customers
> > > or partners they
> > > worked with using 10g. Ask them if this was real
> > > production or just the
> > > usual "let's try this, let's try that" stuff. Ask.
> > > Then think. Of course
> > > they havne't been able to do anything realistic yet.
> > >
> > > Man, when I looked at the books offered from various
> > > publishers at the
> > > RMOUG, there were a few good Oracle-related books
> > > (Dave Ensor's Design,
> > > Cary's, Lawson's, Connor's, etc.) and about 90% of
> > > the displayed books
> > > being ... well... not worth the money.
> > >
> > > Mogens
> > >
> > >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------
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