Re: OT: Reasons to NOT write an Oracle book
- From: Jonathan Gennick <j@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 22:09:04 -0400
Wow. I guess i should look in on the list more often. i've been very busy
with travel, and only just now saw this thread.
I want only to respond to following bullet point from Iggy's post, because
the words he quotes are my own:
- To you work and family commitments come first but, to the publisher,
the book comes first. To you quality is everything but, to the
publisher, the schedule is more important and I quote *"**It is better
to go to market first with a good enough book than to be months late with a
perfect book. A successful good enough book can be improved in a second
edition. A failed perfect book is simply a failure. Schedule matters to
your publisher. Variable pay is the norm. Missed quarterly and yearly
targets can cost your editor and others whom you work with hundreds, even a
few thousands of dollars. Those same missed targets hurt the business too."*
The quote here is a mashup of two bullet points from a blog post that is
essentially my OakTable World lightning talk in written form. I gave the
talk on Monday at OOW.
You can read my post at
http://gennick.com/the-box/seven-secrets-in-publishing. It is Secret #3
that holds the two bullet points.
My focus in the first bullet point is actually on the *audience, *on what
*readers* need from a book:
*Timeliness* matters to your audience. It is better to go to market first
with a "good enough" book than to be months late with a "perfect" book. A
successful "good enough" book can be improved in a second edition. A failed
perfect book is simply a failure.
Recently I helped a retired friend, 80 years old or close to it, rebuild
his website on a new platform because his hosting company was going out of
business and pulling the plug on November 1. He came to me very worried at
the end of September just as I was prepping for OpenWorld, followed by a
trip to New York for management meetings, followed by a trip to Seattle for
the PASS Summit.
There are all sorts of options I could have offered my friend for *December*
delivery. But you know what? He needed something in October that was "good
enough", and that's exactly what I pitched to him and then delivered. I had
him up and running with over three weeks to spare on a drag-and-drop
platform. And as a bonus, he is *delighted* to find that he's able now to
make his own changes, whereas in the past he had been on WordPress and
always dependent upon someone else to help him for every little thing.
*I hope the moral here is clear. The best book in the world is of no use if
it does not exist when it is needed.*
My *second* bullet point -- it is perhaps misleading to mash the two
together -- is about what the *publisher *needs:
*Schedule* matters to your publisher. Variable pay is the norm. Missed
quarterly and yearly targets can cost your editor and others whom you work
with hundreds, even a few thousands of dollars. Those same missed targets
hurt the business too.
Publishing is a business. Books are a product. Costs are involved. Are any
of you in your jobs able to promise your boss that you'll get things done
"whenever?" Anyone?
Don't think for a minute that I don't care about quality. But i also
understand the need to deliver on promises and ship a working product on a
planned schedule.
The editorial work on a book costs publishers money. When a book is started
and then never delivered, we lose the money that we've invested. I actually
have completely missed out on a topic opportunity this year because I made
bad call as to which author to choose for a topic. I won't mention the
topic, but I've lost a publishing opportunity, lost an opportunity to meet
a market need, and it's all because of slow delivery. Sure, I'll eventually
have the book -- I hope! -- but I've lost on opportunity cost, lost a
years' sales, and lost a chance to grab a leadership position on the topic.
(It's that last that hurts the most).
I was very honest in writing the above bullet point. There is a direct line
in my job between my results and my pay. I'm earning several thousand
dollars less this year than last. There's no shrugging it off when I make a
publishing mistake. It hits me right in the wallet. My boss rightfully
holds me responsible to cover the topic area that I've missed. I made a bad
choice, and it will cost me.
Publishers and editors are not somehow evil because we try to keep a
project on schedule. We really do understand about family and day-jobs and
that sort of thing. I make an honest effort to create workable schedules,
and I'm willing to work with authors to adjust scope of a book and do other
things to hold a book on schedule without necessarily piling on like an
awful taskmaster. Sometimes, frankly, i screw up, but i really do try to do
right by those whom I work with.
Quality is not some product attribute that exists in a vacuum separate from
the schedule. Quality encompasses the schedule. Timeliness is an attribute
of quality.
Jonathan Gennick
[Latest blog post] Embiggening the Marquee Menu dots
<http://gennick.com/database/embiggening-the-marquee-fly-out-menu>
[Motto] Brighten the corner--where you are!
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