Q&A;: Philip Parker, Developer of Automated Authoring Platform

Mac Slocum
April 30, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

Philip Parker, founder of ICON Group International and a management science professor at Insead, has developed a patented approach to publishing that combines databases and programming with editorial management -- sometimes via humans, sometimes via computers. ICON Group produces books in 17 genres, including health care, business, reference and crosswords.

In this Q&A;, Parker discusses ICON Group's computer-driven process.

How do you identify book topics?

Based on personal and research interests, I select a genre. Once a genre is selected, I do all titles in that genre (e.g. all trade categories that are officially recognized).

Are writers, editors, or designers involved at any point?

Depends on the genre, but yes, all are relied on heavily at many stages. Health guides are written by medical professionals and hand edited. The business reports have highly edited sections, but 90 percent is computer based.

What types of sources/databases do you pull information from? Are there data sources you don't currently have access to that you think hold promise for this type of publishing?

Depends on the genre. I use the sources that are used by regular authors. For example, an economist uses well established sources to do econometrics, I use the same sources. Many companies and governments have under-utilized data sources and databases that may yield interesting genres; I have worked on the ones that I found of interest to me. I have a huge store of proprietary data. If I use a government source, this is cited, and will vary by genre (e.g. CDC for infectious disease information).

You were part of a print-on-demand (POD) panel at TOC '08. Are all Icon Group books POD? What POD service(s) do you use?

No, not all are print-on-demand. We use LSI [Lighting Source] and Booksurge for POD. We do some POD ourselves for specialized orders.

Could your company -- or a similar company -- function without POD?

Yes, in fact, most of our titles are not POD, but electronic via subscription for large libraries -- corporate and non-corporate.

Are all books also made available as ebooks? What ebook formats do you use?

Yes. PDF, DOC, Mobipocket (coming soon), Pocket PC.

Do researchers or clients ask you to prepare specific books?

Yes. We are able to do financial and labor studies on demand.

Mike Maznick says there's some fairly negative feedback on some of the titles. Is that a consequence of the automated nature of the content creation? Do you feel confident people buying these books know they're generated? Or does that not matter?

All publishers have negative and positive comments (e.g. O'Reilly). I would find it strange if our titles did not. Of the titles we have on Amazon, some 50/210,000 have real comments. Many are satirical. Of the ones from actual buyers, all publishers will receive negative and positive feedback (both can be not real, as Amazon comments are almost wiki based; posted by various people, including affiliates who are trying to sell titles).

I do not track the feedback on Amazon, but I imagine of the 17 genres (crosswords, classics, trade, outlooks, etc.), the negative ones are probably only on the health care guides, which are sold mostly to libraries and patient associations. Of all the genres, this one [health care] is not "generated by computer" -- all the text is written by professionals. The computer is used for formatting and doing the index, and compiling the glossaries.

I have a feeling that the low ratings are because the person does not like the content, thinks that better content or similar content is available elsewhere (e.g. the Internet) or was hoping for more. The health guides are clearly marked as Internet guides, and they cite Internet sources. All of the guides are vetted (by librarians, etc.). If people are dissatisfied because they think the computer wrote the text in the books, then they are dissatisfied for the wrong reason, which is unfortunate.

Many patient associations have not only reviewed the books, but also recommended them to patients and families. On balance, I think it better to make these available to patients with rare diseases who wish to better know how to navigate the Internet, beyond a Google search. For the other genres, I have never received negative feedback, only positive feedback or questions about methodology.

What is your most popular title? How many copies were sold?

Our trade reports, which are purchased by consulting firms, investment banks, and companies involved in international trade. This series is very popular. We gauge sales by series, not by individual titles. Traditional publishers think in terms of individual titles.

On average, how many copies of a single title do you sell?

There are thousands held by libraries (this is public data at World Cat). Some firms subscribe to all titles. Again, we often sell series. Some [titles] sell hundreds, some sell just a few, as a part of a series sale. The prices seen on Amazon are one-off -- we sell few or none of these.

For a typical title, what percentage of the total retail sale is profit?

We do not have a typical title. ICON Group as a whole makes no "profit" -- all resources are plowed into R&D; for new genres. The margins of the books at retail -- as opposed to profit -- are very low for the POD titles, and higher for the business titles. The margins for the low-priced products follow the industry, though we have lower margins as POD can be expensive compared to short-run printing.

A recent New York Times article says that each book costs you "about 12 cents in electricity." What other costs are involved in the process?

It can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more, to set up a genre (programming, licensing, editing, research/analysis, etc.). Many [genres] take about 1 year to create, some take 3 to 5 years. I have been doing this for about 8 years now.

How is pricing determined?

Same as in the publishing industry. In some genres we try to equate marginal revenues to marginal costs. On lower-priced POD we make sure we cover the basic costs. On higher end, we try to be substantially below related titles (e.g. trade and outlook, and other business reports). The latter [higher end] are really not sold via Amazon much, but rather through MarketResearch.com, EBSCO (content inclusion), NetLibrary and traditional channels for those markets (direct sales).

How many titles do you plan to develop this year?

Depends on the genre. For Mobipocket (mobile books), we plan on about 68,000 titles. For others, maybe around 50,000. We are working heavily on my dictionary and animations.

Related:

• Video: "Patent on 'Long Tail' for automated content authorship"
• Automated Authoring Frequently Asked Questions
• Measuring Success on Self-Published Titles

Measuring Success on Self-Published Titles

Andrew Savikas
April 23, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

Over on his blog at Adobe, Bill McCoy comments on the numbers used in a Wired article to demonstrate "success" for a self-published book:

No insult intended to author Zeraus nee Suarez who "is planning to release a sequel". It may be great stuff. But [1,200 copies sold] are not stats to write home about, much less to hang a "who need Random House" thesis on. Per an established literary agent: "Less than 5000 actual sales, result: misery ... A solid midlist novel would reap on the order of 3,500-7,000 hardcover sales and 10,000-25,000 paperbacks in the US."

Bill is absolutely right that as measured by the yardstick of trade publishing, 1,200 copies can't rightly be called a success. But do self-publishing authors use that yardstick?  Let's build a simple scenario and run some numbers. Of course every author is different, but I think it's fair to say that for many authors, two big goals for writing a book are to (1) make money and (2) elevate their reputation.

I'm assuming that for #1, most authors interested in self publishing are modest enough to not expect to get rich from their first (and self-published) book. Instead, they'd like merely to earn the equivalent of a fairly standard advance on royalties. And for #2, let's assume that the marketing outreach needed to sell that modest amount (through, for example, blogging or bootstrapped book tours) will effectively elevate their reputation enough to be counted as a success. That ties the two goals together so they can both be measured via sales numbers.

To make things easy, I'll use my own book, Word Hacks, as an example. In order for me to earn out the advance O'Reilly paid me, the book needed to sell roughly 8,000 copies. Certainly not a blockbuster, but according to Nielsen BookScan data, only 2% of the 1.2 million books sold in 2004 (the year my book was published) sold more than 5,000 copies.

If I'd instead gone the self-publishing route, based on the cost structure of working with Lulu.com, how many books would I need to sell to earn the same amount as that advance? Roughly 500.

Number of copies needed to earn equivalent of publisher advance.

Granted, selling 8,000 copies and having the association with a well-respected brand like O'Reilly is certainly going to do more for reputation than something self-published. But the recognition I'd have had to build with bloggers and their audience to sell those 500 copies would arguably put me among the top choices if and when a publisher like O'Reilly goes looking for their own author.

If you accept my generalizations, the numbers above suggest that in terms of author income, selling one self-published book is roughly equal to selling 16 through a publisher. Getting back to the Zeraus nee Suarez book (that's a pseudonym, btw), 16:1 is the conversion factor needed to make a (somewhat) more accurate comparison with trade sales. Self-publishing and selling 1,200 is therefore more like selling almost 20,000 through a traditional publisher. Not too shabby.

There are some flaws in a rough comparison like this, but my point is that if publishers use their standard sales measures to judge the performance of self-publishing authors, they are underestimating the "success" of those authors.

Related Stories:

• The Bookseller: "Self-published writer in line for PEN/Ackerley"
• Podcasts and Web Promotion Boost Authors

Industry Questions Raised by "Potter" Encyclopedia Suit

Mac Slocum
April 16, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

Updated 4/17/08

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling testified earlier this week against a publisher that wants to release the unofficial Harry Potter Lexicon, a print adaptation of Steven Vander Ark's popular Potter encyclopedia site.

From the New York Times:

... Ms. Rowling said the proposed Lexicon book flouted her plans to write her own encyclopedia and donate the proceeds to charity. She argues that Mr. Vander Ark’s book could deter fans from buying hers.

The article says the legality of the Lexicon hinges on the originality of the title, but this suit also raises broader theoretical questions that plug into many of the free/open shifts we've recently covered.

For example, if the Lexicon is successfully released and Rowling follows through with her own encyclopedia, will Rowling's concern come true? Will her edition falter because the Lexicon has already claimed the market? Or, will awareness and publicity raised by the Lexicon boost Rowling's title? Going a step further, does Rowling even need awareness at this point? (Probably not ...)

The release of both encyclopedias would also provide a real-world test of official vs. unofficial value. Does an "unofficial" encyclopedia -- even a thorough one -- trump an "official" edition? Or, would Rowling's brand and resources marginalize the unofficial title?

Finally, is there an opportunity in the middle ground (and is there a roadmap for other publishers)? The article notes that Rowling and her publisher have been open to Potter fan sites, but what if that openness extended to a formal path for fan-created Potter material? This could take the form of small print runs for "good bet" titles like Van Ark's Lexicon, and print-on-demand services for marginal/niche topics.

Update (4/17/08): Judge Robert P. Patterson says this disagreement could be solved with creativity. From Publishers Weekly:

Patterson reiterated that he felt this was a case that “could be settled and should be settled,” and that it would only take “a little imagination” to make that happen.

Q&A; with WEbook President Sue Heilbronner

Mac Slocum
April 15, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | Listen

WEbook is a new Web-based platform that blends traditional writing workshops with Web 2.0 functionality. Authors and groups can use the site to develop manuscripts, novels, screenplays and other publishable content, and if their efforts are well received, the projects are published by WEbook.

In the following Q&A;, WEbook president Sue Heilbronner offers further details on the company and its collaborative process.

How did WEbook start?

WEbook is the vision of Itai Kohavi, our founder and CEO. In addition to being a twice successful entrepreneur in the technology space, Itai is a twice-published author. When he "completed" his manuscript of his third project -- certain that it was in good shape -- he sent it to a few sharp friends for their feedback. The critiques he received were superb and comprehensive, but he realized that if he had the reactions and input throughout the writing process, he would have produced a far better written product in far less time. In addition, he would have enjoyed working together with friends and fellow writers. He looked online to see if anyone had created a cooperative publishing tool that would have met his needs. Finding nothing suitable, he conceived of WEbook, doing away with the age-old vision of the lonely author and embarking on a community-sourced content creation environment for book publishing.

Is the platform based on wikis? Blogs? Is it proprietary?

Our platform is proprietary and was built for this purpose. It is based in part on wikis, with additional focus on inline comments, inline ratings, and versioning.

How many people are currently participating in projects?

As of April 9, the day WEbook opened its public beta following the alpha, there are 750 registered users of WEbook. Many of the alpha users were recruited in to the process to help provide valuable feedback on the platform and prove that collaborative authoring works.

How are projects created and managed?

Projects are created by an instigator who has an idea for a new book, collection, story, screenplay, etc. That person, the "Project Leader," has the ability to invite others to participate in the writing, give feedback, or both. She sets exposure level and permissions for the project when she establishes it. The Project Leader is charged with managing the project, but in many cases the work can take on a life of its own, with other writers or reactors moving it ahead at a rapid pace.

Are all projects public?

No. WEbook felt it was extremely important to balance the interests of writers -- who feel very strongly about the ownership and protection of their written work -- with the wish of WEbook to create a vibrant community. WEbook allows a project leader or author to make a project private. In doing so, she can be the only member of the project or elect to invite a few friends. A "private" project can stay that way so long as it stays under 35 people (not coincidentally the size of the largest possible creative writing class). At member number 36, the project is effectively a WEbook public project. Users are made aware of this when their project hits that limit, and there are implications of this decision within the Terms of Use and the rights allocation.

Do authors maintain copyright?

The Terms of Use for WEbook required some really new thinking, as the model doesn't exist anywhere else on the Web, and we needed terms that departed in important ways from copyright law in order to make the process possible. Authors who work on private projects with fewer than 35 people retain rights throughout. Once they hit that 36th member, put their work into the public realm, or submit their work for contention as a published WEbook, WEbook takes a six-month option to publish. If WEbook does indeed publish a book, rights are transferred to WEbook, the publisher. If WEbook does not publish, rights revert to the author. That's the simple version. The WEbook Terms of Use are more detailed. We're also producing a short, snappy video to highlight key issues of this all-important topic.

What is the revenue split with authors?

Authors and substantial contributors receive a total combined royalty of 5 percent of net sales.

How are substantial contributors determined? Is it a quantifiable level (i.e. they posted x number of times)?

We use a formula to determine materiality. It has a few softer inputs beyond quantity, which constitute attempts to create a measure of quality and significance to the ultimate work. This is not fully refined, and we expect this algorithm to be a continually moving process as the site evolves. Ultimately, users will see a measure of how they stack up against the algorithm to give them motivation and transparency. We also are intrigued by the idea of giving authors marketing tools to motivate users to contribute to their projects. This might have royalty implications in the future.

Have you found certain topics that are suited for collaboration?

Our goal is to provide a platform that adapts and grows in the direction the community sets. Our first book is Pandora, a fictional thriller written by 17 authors and 17 other contributors and editors. We believe a novel is the highest challenge for collaborative writing, and we took it with the alpha community to prove the concept and learn how writers could write together in the hardest scenario -- a continuous work of fiction.

That said, we think the majority of the WEbook successes will fall into the category of non-fiction or fiction collections. Topics that resonate most with users and, presumably, with the reading public, will be those that are enhanced in coverage because they have input from a community. So, for example, we have a project on our site related to successes families have achieved at home with kids diagnosed on the Autism spectrum. On a far less serious note, there is a great collection of essays on 101 Things Every Guy Should Know How to Do and The First Year, a collection of harrowing essays from first-year teachers.

How will books be selected for publication?

The community will vote on projects that have been put into contention for publication.

How will voting be managed?

Voting will be done on the site. Ratings already occur there for in-progress works and submissions. You will need to be a member of the community to vote. The bar to join is low, joining is easy, and we feel that in order to give an important thumbs-up or down to a work, you should at least identify as a member of the community.

The community will be the overwhelming majority voice in what is selected for publishing. This makes sense, as we view the community as an ingrained base of potential buyers. That said, it would be disingenuous to say that WEbook will move ahead on 100 percent of their top selections or not move ahead on something that just missed the cut. We have strong writers on staff and in our adviser circle (mainly coming out of the alpha experience), and we intend to use them as an occasional input to ensure we're on a good quality path for constantly improving the brand and the work we bring to the market out of the site community.

What formats will books be available in?

WEbook plans to leverage the full range of existing formats -- paper books, ebooks, audiobooks -- as well as delve into new potential formats, including mobile dissemination and unique, customizable downloads.

Will the books be made available through retailers?

Pandora will be available at Amazon.com, BN.com and other Ingram-related online retailers. As WEbook establishes critical mass, a following, and a brand, we will pursue favorable distribution opportunities with brick-and-mortar retailers.

Related Stories:

• BusinessWeek: "WEbook Puts a Crowd in the Author's Seat"
• Web Worker Daily: "WEbook: Book Publishing By the Masses"
• Writing a Book with Google Docs
• Haskell Book Author Adapts to Reader Comments While Writing

Experimenting for the Sake of Experimenting

Mac Slocum
April 10, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

Satellite radio companies Sirius and XM are both touting aggregated programming that focuses on a popular artist or topic (e.g. the '08 election) for a period of time, then gives way to the next subject. Sirius calls them "pop-up channels." XM dubs them "microchannels." (They'll have to settle on a name if/when their proposed merger goes through ...)

From the Washington Post:

By any name, they [aggregated programs] are a reflection of a changed entertainment and information culture, a recognition that the American audience is shifting from loyalty toward permanent formats to sudden plunges into topics and trends that flash onto the collective consciousness and then flit away as quickly as they arrived.

What I find interesting about this idea is that it tests bite-sized culture without abandoning traditional long-form or channel-based content.

Penguin Books is embracing this same "try it and see" concept with its We Tell Stories project, which uses digital delivery and Web-based tools to play with different storytelling forms. While I'm sure there's a revenue stream surrounding this idea -- and ideas of its ilk -- the real value comes in trying for the sake of trying, as Joe Wikert notes. This is especially true in a digital environment, where the platform minimizes risk. Penguin isn't abandoning its core business in favor of the We Tell Stories project -- it's just testing an idea.

Ultimately, the game-changing idea that revolutionizes publishing could very well be the end result of theses types of experiments.

How Do Publishers and Authors Get Paid in a "Free" World?

Mac Slocum
April 8, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2) | Listen

Author Tracy Chevalier's recent comments capture the mixture of fear and opportunity hovering over the book world.

From Times Online:

Ms Chevalier told The Times that the century-old model by which authors are paid -- a mixture of cash advances and royalties -- was finished. "It is a dam that’s cracking," she said. "We are trying to plug the holes with legislation and litigation but we need to think radically. We have to evolve and create a very different pay system, possibly by making the content available free to all and finding a way to get paid separately." (Emphasis added.)

Chevalier touches on the essence of the "free" issue: How do authors and publishers survive when their work is given away (or taken)? Or, more bluntly, how does anyone get paid?

The best answers I've found are in Kevin Kelly's essay "Better than Free." Kelly discusses eight generatives that inspire consumers to pay for material or services they could otherwise get for free. The essay takes a broad view, but each of Kelly's generatives has a connection to the book publishing industry.

Immediacy: If an author or publisher has a loyal audience, readers will pay for early access to upcoming books, chapters and ideas. Moreover, Kelly says publishers have already tackled immediacy with hardcover editions: "Hardcover books command a premium for their immediacy, disguised as a harder cover."

Personalization: A free generic book might serve the majority of a readership, but there's a small percentage who want the benefits of customization, both in physical qualities (binding, paper stock, fonts) and content (editions, additional chapters, related material). Kelly's suggestion: "The free copy of a book can be custom edited by the publishers to reflect your own previous reading background."

Interpretation: Customers will pay for guidance, meaning and, if they're in a rush, shortcuts. In this generative, authors could also expand and customize ideas on a consultant basis.

Authenticity: Knock-offs and pirated copies have opened the door for "book insurance." A customer searching for a definitive, authentic copy will pay for peace of mind.

Accessibility: The idea of physical ownership isn't likely to fade -- we all love our stuff -- but a fee-based digital archive offers a variety of benefits: shelf space can be reserved for the most used/needed/loved books; material can be accessed anywhere; and if disaster strikes, a library can be re-created.

Embodiment: There's value in sensory experiences, particularly those that can't be copied or contained in a digital environment. "PDFs are fine," Kelly notes, "but sometimes it is delicious to have the same words printed on bright white cottony paper, bound in leather." The experience of author readings, speeches and events can also demand a premium. Serving coffee doesn't hurt, either.

Patronage: A small subset of readers will "tip" authors if the process is simple and there's a guarantee the writer will receive those funds. Authors shouldn't rely on goodwill as a primary revenue stream -- unless there's a lot of goodwill -- but it's certainly a possibility.

Findability: Author Leander Kahney and his publisher, Bill Pollock of No Starch Press, recently posted to BitTorrent free digital copies of Kahney's books, The Cult of Mac and The Cult of iPod. Pollock summed up the move on his blog: "I think there’s something to this and logic tells me that if we increase the visibility of our titles, we'll sell more books."

This is just the beginning of a much larger conversation, so please share your ideas in the comments area. Do you see opportunity in a free system?

(Via TechCrunch and Peter Brantley's read20 listserv.)

Survey of Publisher and Author Reaction to HarperCollins Move

Mac Slocum
April 4, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

HarperCollins' new no-return/low-advance business is generating plenty of discussion.

Kassia Krozser from BookSquare:

If HC can pull this off, it will restore my faith in humanity. In a low-margin business, it just makes sense for everybody. And now that printing presses are moving ever-closer to true on-demand printing, the crazy process of overprinting in anticipation of theoretical demand can end.

Emily Gould at GalleyCat echoes the margin-friendly sentiment:

... publishers are routinely forced to overpay their name-brand authors in order to keep them, making it impossible for even bestsellers to earn out. And they also routinely overbid on debuts, doling out big advances to "unproven" authors whose sales rarely measure up to expectations. So eliminating advances in favor of a 50/50 profit split makes total sense, then -- at least, it does for authors who are already known quantities."

The positivity isn't universal. Author Paul Witcover has a decidedly different perspective:

Here the talk is of "profit-sharing," with the author foregoing an advance and (perhaps) splitting the net proceeds with the publisher. As a writer, I'm very, very leery of this approach, especially as implemented here.

The advance vs. profit sharing debate is touched on elsewhere, as well. In an unrelated but relevant post, Joe Wikert analyzes the $300,000 advance given to Stuff White People Like blogger Christian Lander:

Divide the $300K author advance by the $473K publisher receipts [Wikert's estimate, based on 75,000 copies sold at a discount of $6.30] and you get 63 percent. In other words, Random House would have to pay the author a royalty rate of 63 percent (against net) in order for the author to earn out that $300K advance after selling 75K copies.

The current discussion also relates to Evan Schnittman's "flat-fee" suggestion from last summer (link via read20 listserv):

I propose that trade contracts move to a flat fee or payment for the standard rights associated with publishing a book. This fee would function just like an advance in that it would be paid on signing, delivery and acceptance, but it would be the only expected payment for the work.

A Q&A; on O'Reilly’s "Up-to-Date" Publishing Experiment

Mac Slocum
April 2, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

There's a common conundrum in the computer book world: software companies often release updates on a monthly or weekly basis, yet many programmers rely on printed references that can take months to write and produce. There are online options, but we also know that many readers still want something printed.

To try and tackle the problem, O'Reilly has launched a new experiment with the just-released Essential Silverlight 2 "Up-to-Date" edition (Silverlight is a new technology platform from Microsoft). Readers get a book that's current when they purchase it, but also get access to updates that can be physically inserted into the book.

I recently spoke with four members of the Essential Silverlight 2 project team to get their take on the development of this book as well as their view on the broader "updateable" concept.

Q: How is Essential Silverlight 2 different from traditional books?

Laurel R.T. Ruma, co-editor: The book is in a durable plastic binder that has three hole punches with metal pins. The binder can hold 425 pages, so there's room to grow.

Q: How does the update process work?

Ruma: You buy the book through a bookstore or online and then you register it through O'Reilly. When Microsoft releases a new beta, Christian [Wenz, the author] starts writing. Around 6 to 8 weeks later, a PDF of the update will be posted online and you'll be notified because you're registered. You can download the PDF for free and print and trim it yourself, or you can purchase printed and punched copies for an additional cost.

Q: When will the first update be available?

Ruma: Updates will be available online April 21 and in print the first week of May.

Q: What were the challenges in developing this book?

John Osborn, co-editor: There are unique challenges because it's a retail product -- security, display, etc. We needed to work with the binder vendor to create a security seal so people don't steal pages.

Laurel Ackerman, Director of Marketing, O'Reilly Open Tech Exchange: We needed to consider how it would integrate into a bookshelf. The dimensions of the book [7 inches x 9 inches] are designed for a retail shelf.

Christian Wenz, author: It was quite a challenge to plan the whole book structure. When writing a regular book, you can change the structure until very late in the process. Here, we had to create a flexible structure that would allow us to add content later without having to ship a whole new book with every update.

Ruma: We had to think about things like page numbering, because different pages and sections can be updated. We used a system that goes by section, chapter, and page number [e.g., 1.3.1]. We also had to shift all the templates because of the pins. Really, we wanted to make it so the reader will have to replace as few pages as possible. We want them to replace in a thorough way, but not a wasteful way.

Q: Was the production process different for the Up-to-Date edition?

Ruma: A standard book takes 6 to 9 months to write and 12 weeks to produce. We did this one in a little more than a month.

Christian and John had worked on a Silverlight 1.0 PDF. Christian incorporated his book updates into his 1.0 document within two weeks. Production on the book took another two weeks. And then it went to the printer for two weeks.

The book had to be done for the Microsoft MIX conference in March [2008]. We knew we would have an audience that is extremely interested in the subject matter and would give us unbiased and honest feedback.

[Editor’s note: authoring and production for this title was done using DocBook XML and a customized version of the open source DocBook XSL stylesheets.]

Q: What has the feedback been like?

Osborn: Generally the first reaction was 'Wow, this is a great idea." From there it was tons of feedback, most of it really good.

Ackerman: All of the feedback we've gotten from programmers is relief and delight. There's a lot of frustration out there with people waiting for books between releases. They're thrilled to be getting the content so they can start working.

Q: What type of content is best suited an Up-to-Date book?

Osborn: I see two scenarios: One is like Silverlight, which is a product in beta. Knowing the software release sequence and knowing the end point works well. In the second scenario, I could see something where you pick a core technology, like Visual Basic, and then offer updates. If anything new comes along, we'll provide it.

Q: Do you think other publishers will move toward updateable books?

Ackerman: I think it's inevitable that publishers will be going this way. At TOC, the two big topics were on-demand publishing and the value that publishers bring to information. Both of those things are in this book.