Getting on a best of book list is always cool. Although being the last on the list isn’t quite as cool, especially when at least 2 of those books are, oh, about 18 months out of date. Not to mention that some very good books didn’t make it on the list either.
Congrats, though, to Victoria Bampton making the top ten. Why? Well because Victoria is self published. Self publishing is a very much a 2 edged sword. You can bring a book to market as an E-Book quickly, without dealing with the process of dealing with a publishing firm. You can choose the editor and the tech editors from people you know and trust. You take a lot more money from the final product, and are not stuck dealing with 6 monthly accounting sequences while your money sits in someone else’s bank account. You can produce the book to a known cost and are directly involved with the design and layout. Victoria tells me her book maker settles quarterly, for the paperback version.
Of course the other edge is that you also need to do a lot of self promotion. You need to absorb the costs upfront, especially for a printed book, as Victoria has done. As you don’t have a fixed deadline, you need to be brutal with yourself on timing, probably even more so that with a publisher. If the book fails, then you have to take the entire hit for it.
Going down the e-book only route allows you to have a constantly up to date product, something not possible in the Print world. Lead time from final edit to a printed advance book can be 6 months. That’s a long time in the life of a software product, with an average product cycle of 18 months.
I’d like to congratulate all of the friends and acquaintances I’ve made that are on that list along with Victoria: Mikkel Aaland, Rob Sylvan, Martin Evening, Scott Kelby, Uwe Steinmueller, David duChemin & Chris Orwig. I did tech edit Chris’s book and a lot of my suggestions went into it, so I’m glad to see it make the list. Congrats folks and well deserved.
Thanks Sean for posting about us! Your book is awesome and I also think it should be listed higher. Currently we select books by hand and rank them automatically based on sales rank and customer reviews. But we’re just starting and will get better with this, I promise.
I got a nice sales repot yesterday, but I do appreciate that my publisher is not the best promoter of it’s books! Thanks Mick!
Thanks so much Sean! I’m thrilled that it’s done so well, and I can only thank all of the people who have encouraged me along the way, yourself included.
It’s been quite a learning curve! I’d originally intended to write a really short free eBook, and it gradually grew as more questions kept appearing on the forums. Going to print through Lightning Source, and then onto Amazon and other online bookstores, was a huge jump from my original plans, but I’ve learned a lot along the way.
I’m busy rewriting the LR3 book at the moment, and rearranging it into a more logical order for those who decide to read it cover to cover instead of using it as a reference book. As with all self-publishing, it’s a gamble, but the response so far has been great.
Congratulations to everyone else who made the list, and to you too Sean – I’ve learned a lot from you!