Books in Beta Form

congaflum writes "The Pragmatic Bookshelf recently released the second beta of their upcoming book Agile Web Development with Rails. By releasing the book to the public in beta form, the authors are able to gather feedback about the books content from a larger audience that would normally be the case. Readers get to influence the direction on the books content by posting feedback to the publisher's website. And of course there's the benefit of simply getting to read the book early. Could beta-version books be a sign of future changes in the commercial publishing industry? And with the availability of things like print on demand these days, how about books that are much more frequently revised (why buy a year-old Edition 1 of something, if you can have Edition 1.1.18?)"

Comments

FYI

[Anonymous Coward]

Book is available for ordering here: Agile Web Development with Rails

Re:FYI

[scottdelap]

SourceBeat has been offering "subscription" based eBooks for a while now. My book Desktop Java Live just had its first release published through them. The books are updated often to keep up with changes in open source content. SourceBeat also supports print on demand so ordering a print copy generates the latest version available. This gives readers the best of both worlds regardless of whether they pick the eBook or the print version.

Re:Star Wars Beta?

[yotto]

I like that idea. I post all of my fiction online for free to anybody who can figure out how to ask me for the password (password protected = not published, if you must know. That's important when talking to a publisher) and most of my writings I consider to be "beta" versions of the books/stories. They're beta until someone buys them. Until then, I take all feedback I get and use it to make the story better.
It's worked for me so far (though I haven't sold anything, I've gotten better feedback after incorporating others' suggestions) and it feels good to "give away" fiction in this way but still maintain the ability to publish if a publisher ever shows an interest.

Real time books: "Livebook" from Sourcebeat

[rmerrill11]

Are you familiar with Sourcebeat? They provide a "12-month book subscription" for open-source related technical manuals. From the site:
"At SourceBeat, we believe the traditional publishing model does not work in rapidly changing environments such as open source software. Traditional books take too long to go from author to bookshelf, and many times the books are outdated soon after release. Until now. SourceBeat is the first publisher to create always updated open source technology books, written by expert authors such as James Goodwill, Bill Dudney, Matt Raible and many others. Utilizing our "LiveBook(TM)" process, readers and subscribers are always sure of getting the most current information on each open source project.

How it works differently than the traditional publishing model is that instead of buying a static book, readers subscribe to a particular book for 12 months. The expert authors provide updates on their respective topics, ensuring the most relevant and current information on a project. No more buying multiple books on the same topic in order to cover the areas you need. In addition, as a subscriber you can interact with the author through list servers and weblogs. This way you can let them know your thoughts on current items and also what you would like to see in future updates."

Seems like a good model - I am planning on subscribing to Plone Live myself.

Re:Post-Publish Fate

[Marillion]

It's iterative book development. And since iterations is an agile development philosophy, what better context.

I've bought this book. More to the point, I have the current Beta. The authors have sent e-mails as the book gets updated. I had two ways I could by the book: 1) Dead tree + PDF, or 2) PDF only. I went with #1 since there's nothing like being able to touch it. The PDF's are slightly different that the printed version - The one I bought was watermarked with my name. They're hyperlinked and maximize the PDF format. The printed version won't and can't support hyperlinking. Once published I get to keep both, for the benefits each format brings.

Re:Star Wars Beta?

[globalar]

"For a story book, instead of releasing beta of a pseudo-complete book, author should release it chapter by chapter..."

Charles Dickens released novels (like "A Tale of Two Cities") in a chapter-by-chapter format monthly or weekly. It's obvious to see how this diverted the story's chapters into episodes, often with cliffhangers at the end. Dickens was able to gauge public opinion and take reader feedback to adjust the story as needed, probably greatly contributing to his success.

Re:Star Wars Beta?

[Big Sean O]

It also made some of his novels (I'm thinking David Copperfield) go on and on and on an ON. Also, there's the 'dropped thread'. In one book (I forget which) there was a lady who was a 'little person'. Her thread gets dropped somewhere in the middle of the story. She makes a perfunctory appearance in one of the final chapters, as if Dickens says "Oops, forgot about the midget".