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I buy tons of tech books (makes for great WC reading), though I've slacked
off of late. One reason is due to stale material. The latest XML books
pretty much say the same thing as my WROX book said 4 years ago.
I think one way to overcome this repeatitiveness is to offer XML in
newly/untouched fields. In fact, take a page from the XP world, offer
shorter, smaller books that are easier to read, but focus on only one aspect
of XML or in one specific industry. These books would also be cheaper, which
is a good benefit. I remember debating for months before buying the O'Reilly
XSD book (already had a Wrox one), and the biggest con for it was the cost.
If it were only $20, I probably wouldn't have even thought twice about it. I
bought almost all the XP books because they're so cheap, and now in
hindsight I realize I've spend more than if they would have just bundled all
the books into one massive book.
Having smaller books also lets the reader pick-and-choose the topics they
desire. XP books again, the white book is excellent, everyone should read.
The others, only about half would be good for the general audience. XML is
the same way, they should have a basic "white" book that is the introductory
one (like your CXML, which I interpret as "casual" XML as opposed to
"common"). The some other small books on specific aspects of XML. One on
Schemas, one on Schemas in B2B/EDI world, one on Schemas with XForms, etc.
In fact, this is the philosophy we've adopted with our XML tools, simple and
specific allowing the end user to buy what they need, rather than one
massive application that tries to do it all...
This is Niche Marketing 101 really. Make the product smaller, more
specialized to a specific niche, and the profit margins will most likely
increase.
Bryce K. Nielsen
SysOnyx, Inc. (www.sysonyx.com)
Makers of xmlLinguist, the Text-to-XML Translator
(http://www.sysonyx.com/products/xmllinguist)
- References:
- xml, books
- From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>
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