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The Best and Worst Tech-Book Publishers?

Posted by timothy on from the little-pots-of-red-ink dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I am an author working on a technical book about an open-source software package. I am looking for a publisher, and I would like to hear experiences from any Slashdot authors. Who are the best publishers to work with and why are they great? Who are the worst publishers in the tech book business, and what nightmare/horror stories can you tell us about them? Any publishing company in particular you recommend avoiding? Any gems of advice (rights reversion, etc.) you can provide for first-time tech book authors?"

2 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why not open source your book? by BikeHelmet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People have to eat.

    Shockingly, I've seen books devoted to PHP, Apache, and C - books which cost money to buy. But get this - those things are free!

    And a few ingenious companies actually built commercial products around them, too!

  2. AC time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My god, there's going to be a lot of venting on this thread... how about we make it a lot shorter and ask if any publishers *aren't* a nightmare to deal with?

    Note for people about to post -- check your contract. Both of mine explicitly stated you must not say anything nasty about the publisher. You want to go AC on this thread.