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Tumbling to Tumblr
Gonna try Tumblr for a bit; Posterous is getting too slow.
Follow me at http://packtdavidb.tumblr.com/
Categories: Editor's Blogs
Financial Times’ Web app draws in 2m users in the ten months since launch
Financial Times’ Web app draws in 2m users in the ten months since launch
Last month we wrote that FT.com’s subscription revenue was on course to overtake its ad-based revenue in 2012, with Rob Grimshaw, Managing Director ... Source: http://goo.gl/mag/XziiZ Shared via Google Currents
Categories: Editor's Blogs
Move over Harry Potter... Packt books bought from Packtpub.com can now be sent straight to Kindle
Screenshots below. And of course you'll still be able to access the book in a variety of DRM free formats from your Packtpub.com account.
Categories: Editor's Blogs
Move over Harry Potter... Packt books bought from Packtpub.com can now be sent straight to Kindle
Screenshots below. And of course you'll still be able to access the book in a variety of DRM free formats from your Packtpub.com account.
Categories: Editor's Blogs
Nobody Wants to Learn How To Program
This post by @AlSweigart says more about how to write a tech book than the whole history of this blog, in a single post. Readers want programs, not programming. They want to build things they can brag about, copy, and show off.
It doesn't just apply to programming. Every technical skill fits this pattern. Nobody wants to learn Drupal. They want to build a web site.Nobody wants to learn Backtrack. They want to hack (or protect) wireless networks. Too few authors and publishers take this seriously. Heeding Al's advice leads to happy readers and substantial sales. Do it.
Categories: Editor's Blogs
The most useful thing I learned at university
Early in the second year we were given a project to develop an IT strategy for a small printing business. We delivered a comprehensive strategy with some pretty powerful recommendations for enterprise grade marketing management software.
It was going well until one of the lecturer's playing the role of client said, "just one thing... what makes you think a small business like ours wants to implement a complex IT strategy like this?" "You've got to move with the times," we said. "You've got to modernize.""We'd rather not, if we can help it," said the lecturer.
"Well you asked us here to present an IT strategy, you're paying us to deliver one, so you must want to change." Then another lecturer, Carsten Sørensen, said one of the most useful things I have ever heard: "We'd be quite happy to pay you to tell us we didn't need to change anything. We'd pay you double." That was the end of the presentation. A lot of tech books focus on how different a new tool is from the old, and how much the reader's working practices should change as a result. This misses the point. Most people do not adopt new technology eager to change their old habits. The more you can tell them they don't need to change, the happier they will be. If you are interested in teaching new technologies in a way that makes readers want to pay you double, contact me on davidb@packtpub.com.
Categories: Editor's Blogs
