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Location: Blogs
Bert Scalzo's Blog
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| Bert |
Monday, March 03, 2008 6:16 AM |
The Toad Handbook is over four years old now. Even the more recent second edition of the Toad Pocket Reference is over two years old. And there’ve been many Toad releases over the years as shown below:
So when will new Toad books be coming? This is a common question that Jeff Smith, Patrick McGrath, Dan Hotka and I get asked all the time. And I wish I had a good answer.
There are many reasons for this – but as with most business decisions it all boils down to economics (i.e. $$$). Publishers have become gun shy ever since 2000 to fund new book initiatives. So getting new titles off the ground is difficult. And even updates to existing books have become quite hard to initiate – the book must have sold a lot of copies, lest the publishers just say no. The larger, Toad Handbook received good reviews from its readers but was not a best-seller. The Toad Pocket Reference was quite popular, but the very nature of being a “pocket reference” has held it back from being updated. The pocket reference books make the least amount of profit. They cost almost as much as a larger book to publish but demand a much smaller price tag (usually the list price is under $10).
So, what are our other options? Here are a few:
- Publish the Toad books in an e-book format
- Use the hardcopy,self-publish model. This, however, typically results in a higher per copy price and may not be very appealing to readers.
- Add content to the existing online reference sites.
Since new hardcopy books do not appear to be in the future, I’m curious, would you read or reference a Toad e-book? Please, let us know as it really will influence whether such a project moves forward. In the meantime, we’ll continue to add to the many existing places to get lots of great Toad content and are totally free:
- www.toadworld.com – a single portal with its own content (including Toad video clips, recorded webcasts and many others) and links to the rest
- www.asktoad.com – a wiki sight with FAQ, “How To’s” and other Toad advice
- groups.yahoo.com/group/toad/ - public Yahoo discussion groups for Toad
- tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/toadbeta/ - private beta discussion group
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Comments (6)
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By Norm on
Tuesday, March 04, 2008 3:57 AM |
Hi Bert,
yes, I would read an eBook. I have many eBooks in my collection and quite a few of them I have upgraded to tree ware as my need to read in the bath decrees!
Cheers,
Norm. |
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By bscalzo on
Wednesday, March 05, 2008 5:11 AM |
| thanks norm - I'm hoping lots of people ring in on this topic so that we can make an informed decision on where to go or what to try. it might be that the toadworld blogs and asktoad can best remain both current and relavent - so maybe we just need a way to index and reference those materials easily - sort of a toadworld pseudo e-book pointing to the collection of toad stuff people would like to read. Just a thought....... |
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By ElioMartinho on
Wednesday, March 05, 2008 9:58 AM |
My 2 cents, for what they're worth.
EBooks are definitely a great way to go. We all are usually at the computer when (ab?)using TOAD and that is also usually the time where we need to find out about "stuff".
An EBook is also, generally, cheaper than it's paper equivalent. If the EBook is also printable (difficult probably, but one can hope!) then there is always the option of printing those really helpful pages.
The idea of indexing the sites is good, but the organization in a book would probably be more productive for most people IMHO, since sometimes you just don't have access to the Internet.
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By DavidO on
Wednesday, March 05, 2008 11:28 AM |
I would definitely use an eBook if it meant having an updated version of the Toad books. I prefer printed books since I can set them on my desk while working on the computer but if they are not going to be updated but every ten years then a more frequently updated eBook would be preferred. Being able to print it would be hugely helpful but not a deal breaker.
David |
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By bscalzo on
Thursday, March 06, 2008 6:06 AM |
| Thanks to all who have replied - and please people keep the opinions coming in. The more the merrier. Because more replies means more ammo to maybe do one of the suggestions :) |
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By roddyt on
Monday, March 10, 2008 6:42 AM |
Assuming the eBook has essentially the same detail that a printed book has, then that is definitely the way to go.
Check out the Macintosh publication tidbits.com and see how they have implemented eBooks. I think that is a model that would work well here.
I rarely buy technical books any more because they go out of date so fast, but I do buy eBooks because they are easy to get online, relatively inexpensive, and (at least with Tidbits) updated regularly (and that is key--if they won't be updated, don't bother).
Another benefit with the eBook model is that you can create multiple eBooks on functional subjects as opposed to one big book. For instance, I might be interested in the SQL Optimizer, but I have no need for DBA functionality. That way I can buy just what I need.
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