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USA Today on O'Reilly Covers
jbc writes "USA Today has an article on O'Reilly's animal cover art. If you're like me, and are an obsessive collector of these books, you'll find it interesting. If not, you probably won't. "
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> Personally, I'm much more inclined to purchase a technical book after its value has been demonstrated
Personally, I find the animal on the cover to be all the demonstration of value that I need. I've yet to run into a bad O'Reilly book.
I almost died laughing the first time I saw the cover of the Baboon Book... I mean, there've been so many times that I've heard people say that a trained monkey could run a network better than most MCSEs...
Most technical manuals are written in the style of a college professor lecturing to his class. "This is the right way to do it." they usually proclaim. The Perl books (and others I have parused) from O'Reilly are written by someone who will tell you, "Well, this is how I got this to work. Give it a try, and see if it works for you." No lecturing involved, just straightforward handy information.
The animals, however, are a bonus. Creativity in a world usually devoid of such. I'm dreading the day, however, when some other publisher starts to publish "copycat" titles with animals gracing their covers. Eek.
--- Journals are boring; Go to my web page instead
They tried this with "The Linux Network Admin Guide", and the print version did not sell well.
TedC
I found it here if anyone's interested.
Perl programs strongly resemble line noise. You have to be either a masochist or brutally obsessive-compulsive to actually take the time to decipher the majority of programs written by someone else (and sometimes yourself). Perl is pretty in the same way that a mutant-child is pretty to its mother. "A face that only a mother could love" and all that.
- d
I have several of the ORA books. Whenever I leave one laying around the living room, my wife always says to me, "I wish you'd stop buying those damn computer books with the cool animal covers. I always think they're about something interesting, then I read the title. You geek."
:)
-- 100% MS-Free as of 4-4-1999, 11:47:38 PST. "The lapdance is always better when the stripper is cryin'" Free Kevin,
For whatever reason that catchphrase, 'Information wants to be free' irks me. Maybe it's because everyone I know who proclaims this is annoying and a pirate, so they've lost major respect points by irritating me and flouting the socio-economic structure in existence in the US...
An interesting concept would be for O'Reilly to provide an online documentation center, all the while having a pane atop or to the left or something with advertisements/links(same thing) to their books and works, as well as for other companies...
IE, an information/documentation portal, with advertisements from hardware, software, internet service, and user support companies, among other things...
I don't think their sales of hardcopy books would drop, but would actually rise as more people are exposed to their site and their works... It may be tough to sell the concept to authors, however.
It's nice to have something free and available, but for a real reference, for example when on a slow connection, not online, or one doesn't want to spend hours staring at a monitor, or you just want to hold something in a comfortable chair...
The online documentation would be added value/service, I think...
AS
-AS
*Pikachu*
...so I wonder at what point the O'Reilly folks will realize they'll sell more books when they make online versions of the books freely available on the web. While it may seem a contradiction, it is not. Personally, I'm much more inclined to purchase a technical book after its value has been demonstrated: Show me the content is truely valuable, then I'm much more likely to purchase a hardcopy for my own convienience instead of going to a website.
That information can be free and still provide a living for those who bundle it is the big boon of computer/internet evolution. The trick is for those who bundle information to quickly realize that traditional marketing techniques, when applied to information, are often the incorrect path to profitability. Point: Don't try to convince your customers that your product has value via arguments and gimmicks (traditional marketing), but show them the goods so they can convince themselves of the value, then provide them with convienience and service -- it this case, a quickly referenced book.
Three cheers to O'Reilly for providing the Linux/Unix community with convienience and quality over the years: May you all prosper accordingly.
Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!