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iPhoto Book Tackles Version Issues
Fubar writes "Longtime TidBITS publisher Adam C. Engst recently wrote a book about Apple's iPhoto software. Faced with the standard publishing-to-market delays that would only leave a month or so before the next version of iPhoto is released, Engst worked out a deal with Amazon that folks can download the book for $13 now, and receive a free dead-tree version once the book is updated to reflect the changes in the new version of iPhoto. This is the first 'book upgrade' I've ever heard of."
Back in the days when computer documentation was only sent out in dead tree form, those loose-leaf books/binders were upgrade/updatable. CDC manuals, back in the 1970's, came with a free update service that continued well into the late 1980's.
chongo (was here)
Amazon and this write let it slip that a new version of iPhoto is coming out at MWNY.
After all I'm effectively buying a license when I buy a book aren't I?
Hm. That's kind of like saying you're entitled to the book-on-tape when you buy the printed book. Which is nuts.
When you're buying a book, you're buying... a book.
Then again, this may be the best object lesson I've ever heard in the absurdity of buying and selling licenses.
From the article:
Despite that, the printing and distribution time meant that if I finished the book in early March, it wouldn't appear in bookstores or on the Web until the middle of April. Normally that delay is merely a little frustrating. However, a book needs a shelf life of about six months to recoup the costs of printing and distribution, not to mention the author's royalties and the publisher's overhead. While writing about iPhoto and seeing the discussions taking place about it online, it became blindingly obvious that Apple was likely to update iPhoto soon, with a July release at Macworld Expo in New York being the latest we could imagine, leaving only a few months of shelf life. Apple wasn't talking, but the financial risk of printing thousands of copies of the book was just too great for Peachpit to justify going ahead with the printing when I finished writing in early March. From my point of view, even though the risk was primarily Peachpit's, I couldn't stomach the thought of recycling thousands of copies of the book because of poor timing. But at the same time, I had a completed book on my hands, and since iPhoto had been downloaded over one million times in two months, I figured there were plenty of people who could use the book right away.
--Mike