A Ray of Hope Regarding My OpenOffice 2 Book

Very important note:  The blogger at http://somethingfishyatbarnesandnobles.blogspot.com/2006/07/last-year-i-was-hired-to-run-28-public.html   is drawing his own conclusions from the reluctance of large bookstore chains to buy copies of my yet-unpublished OpenOffice.org 2.0 book. My only information, and my only conclusions, are in this blog.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I just talked to my editor and apparently the salespeople at Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc.  just don't want to sell an OpenOffice book right now. Market's soft, blahblah.

Well, I said, poop on them, or something to that effect, and then my editor suggested that we just sell the book as a PDF, bypassing that whole bricks-and-mortar aspect.

That's the plan, now--I hope--to have a whole PDF of my OpenOffice 2.0 book for sale from this blog, through a site managed by Prentice Hall, by the end of August.

If you feel the urge to needle the bricks-and-mortar bookstores, feel free to go to your local bookstore and order my OpenOffice 2.0 book from them. If there's enough demand, maybe we can get a print version out before the end of the decade, too. Thanks to anyone who does this. ;>

Just ask for the OpenOffice 2.o Resource Kit, ISBN 013148205X

Here's the link to Amazon as a reference.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/013148205X

So--there's hope! Not certainty, but hope. And if this doesn't work, I'll try demanding the rights back from the publisher to just publish it myself.

---

Comments

[Samuel deHuszar Allen]

I've already pre-ordered a copy. Will those purchases be converted into downloadable PDFs by Amazon or will I have to cancel my order and re-purchase the PDF? I would hope that the PDF will be a wee bit cheaper than the hardbound version which gets the obligatory publisher's "we-own-you" overhead tax. I will pick up the PDF (perhaps several) as soon as it's available, so please let me know.

[Miguel Guhlin]

Solveig, howdy! Congrats on getting a book to near-print status!!

On a personal note, will your book be DRM free? I bought one book from Amazon and have regretted ever since because of the permissions that prevented me from doing anything with it that I love doing with a pDF document.

Why are you using Prentice-Hall--which seems traditional--rather than Lulu? And, would you share how you go about organizing your book into chapters, and all that? I would love to hear a podcast on how this book idea came about, etc.

An aspiring book author,
Miguel

[Felicia B]

I've been looking forward to the release of your book. I'd love to have it sooner rather than later...just a little impatient. I hope you can get it out in PDF format...which would be even better than a hardcopy anyway.

Well, good luck in getting it to PDF.

[Scott B]

The great thing about the print version was that it came with the software on the CD, so it was like buying the software with a "super-manual". (Although the version on the CD was out of date by the time the book came out.)

Honestly, I've never been a fan of eBooks. I find them harder to read for long lengths of time due to the strain on the eyes.

[Linker]

I'm kind of with Scott -- reading from an e-book too long makes my eyes ache.

Sooo -- the solution is to get the PDF book, and then take (or even email) it to a Kinko's or similar place and get it printed and bound. :)

As far as software on the CD, it usually ends up being out of date. Especially with open source, I just hit up the website to get the altest version.

The only good thing about CDs are when code examples are included, and anything like that I'm sure could be put on Solveig's website (if it's even applicable).

[Samuel deHuszar Allen]

...Or, instead of Kinkos, just print out the chapers you're working on so as not to lug around this massive tome.

[Solveig]

Hi Samuel,

Thanks! Yes, I'm sure the orders from Amazon will be refunded. My understanding is that they only keep 6 months' worth of backorders and refund you if you've been waiting longer, though I have simply been told this by my publisher.

[Solveig]

Hi Miguel,

I am not privy yet to the details of the PDF production. I'm signing up today for the program and as things progress I'll be able to post more about the PDF.

I'm using Prentice Hall since this is my fourth OpenOffice/StarOffice book for them; I got the first book contract, my first book ever, through them while working for Sun. (We did the book as a separate project, outside our work hours, and were paid in royalties for doing it--it wasn't something we did as part of our salaried jobs, as with some Sun authors.)

So there are all sorts of noncompete, don't do this with another publisher, issues etc. If they decide they don't want to publish it, though, in theory they will revert the rights to me and I could do Lulu, or just print them all myself and sell'em through Amazon, which is what I do with "Dating Design Patterns," "Dating Power Tools," and my guys' gift-giving guide. I suspect Cafepress wouldn't work since it'd pretty expensive for a 700-page book. ;>

>> And, would you share how you go about organizing your book into chapters, and all that? I would love to hear a podcast on how this book idea came about, etc.

I need to learn how to do a podcast, don't I? ;> If I don't, though, I'll definitely blog on it, thanks for the question.

[Solveig]

Hi Felicia,

Thanks for coming by--I too am IMPATIENT. And frustrated and annoyed and GRRRR! So I am going to do whatever I can and frankly if something hasn't happened by August I'm just going to review my contract and see if Prentice Hall will break my knees if I publish it myself. ;> (I hope they would in that case just revert the rights to me.) Not that they would really care to sue me if they think it's such an unimportant topic that they can't be bothered to publish it themselves.

I'm doing everything I can to rush this out. ;> Thanks for the show of support.

[Solveig]

Hi Scott,

I imagine the PDF is just meant for printing in the end--not every page as mentioned, just the key ones. Also, I guess, you could print copies of the same 40 pages that you always use, for work and for home.

I'm very much a fan of print but of course publishers are fans of things that cost less.

We'll see how it shakes out--this is my first PDF book. If it's popular enough, then maybe that'll make the B&N and Borders salespeople beat a path to my door and ask for a print version.

[Scott B]

I sent an email to Prentice Hall last night telling them how excited I was about this book and asked when it would be available! :)

Perhaps some sort of grass roots campaign can be started up to get this book published. I'd be happy to hit some of the OOo/SO messageboards and spread the word. Like you said, the more pre-orders you have, the better.

What do you think?

[Solveig Haugland]

Hi Scott,

Thank you so much! I got the impression from my editor at P Hall that the people at the chain bookstores who buy the books are the ones putting up resistance. So I think actually that calling or going to those bookstores and ordering it would do the most good.

I'm kind of puzzled -- they published my StarOffice 5.2 book, my StarOffice 6.0 book, and my OpenOffice.org 1.0 book without any guff. And now, just as OpenOffice.org is really starting to cross the chasm, as they say, the bookstores are resisting. (Plus, I'm the best-selling OpenOffice/StarOffice author to date, according to my publisher, for what that's worth.)

[Scott B]

I'll jump on it over the weekend.

[børge]

Hi!
I'm sure you know of this, but just in case: You could use http://lulu.com/ to print your book..

[Scott B]

Børge,

Solveig herself already mentioned Lulu as an alternative several posts above. The issue right now is getting her publisher to give the publishing rights back to her if they decide not to publish it.

[børge]

Ah.. ehm.. hehe..
Well, I didn't bother to read through all of the posts. I should of course have at least searched before I spoke, but, hey, everyone makes mistakes, right..? Right...?

:)

[Solveig Haugland]

Hi børge,

>> Ah.. ehm.. hehe..
Well, I didn't bother to read through all of the posts.

We're ALL friends here; no requirements for perfection or reading all the posts. Info is good, supporting OpenOffice.org is good. ;>

Especially from fellow Norwegians! Not that I was born in Norway but the whole ancestral line is Norwegian. I was in Mølde in September 2003, teaching OpenOffice.org to some teachers.

[Miguel Guhlin]

Solveig, someone started a controversy on an email list citing you as the recipient of Microsoft muscling you out. You can read it here:

Sun Spot
http://www.mguhlin.net/blog/archives/2006/07/entry_1834.htm

8->

Take care,
Miguel

[Solveig Haugland]

Hi Miguel,

I corresponded with Phil -- I hadn't realized it was getting controversial. I of course don't have any evidence that Microsoft and the big bookstores are doing anything; as I mentioned to Phil, all I know is that the stores haven't seen big sales for OOo books so far and are wary. And this is causing enough of a problem in potential sales that Prentice Hall is so far choosing to not publish my OOo 2.0 book in printed form.

Had tried before to comment on the blog but didn't see a comment button; I've added a disclaimer to the relevant blog entry.

[Miguel Guhlin]

Ahh, it was all Phil's fault. One can only wish he'd launched a blog that hadn't so wordy a title...of course, I can't complain TOO much.

;->

Miguel