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[REBOL] Re: REBOL FOR DUMMIES! (fwd)

From: ralph:abooks at: 19-Oct-2000 9:35

> > REBOL FOR DUMMIES by Ralph Roberts (five-star general in the > > REBOLution!) is now being shipped by REBOL Press Online -- weeks ahead > > of availability from Amazon, B&N, or the corner bookstore. > > > I'm curious why the second book on the REBOL language is in the > For Dummies line? I don't think many developers take these books > seriously regardless of their content. >
I'll speculate on that, being both a longtime computer book author and publisher. Generally a software company has no control over which publisher deems to do a book about their product. In fact, the significant victory here is that REBOL has already attracted two major publishers (with at least two others I know of seriously interested, as well). Contrast this to the literally hundreds of thousands of software packages available on the web right now that DO NOT have books about them. REBOL is far ahead of the game compared to most startups. Commendably so! Now, to answer your question further: a package-specific book aimed toward developers will sell a few hundred or few thousand copies (limited market). That's why they are usually priced in the $30-$50 range, or higher. They cost little more to print than a book selling in the $15-$25 range, thus the profit is much greater. But it has to be since sales will be fewer units. Unit sales is EVERYTHING in publishing--you learn that quickly or you go out of business. The Dummies series is aimed at the general populace--i.e. end users. The average sale of a Dummies book I've been told by someone in a position to know is over 30,000 books. So it logically follows: which is best for REBOL--a limited book that reaches a few hundred developers or one that reaches tens of thousands of users? The latter, of course, as it gets word of the language out there and introduces people to its power. Those people will actually use it and spur more developers to start looking at REBOL. Yes, no developer may ever read REBOL FOR DUMMIES, but there will still be a lot of developers infuenced by it. REBOL FOR DUMMIES is SMART for REBOL's growth. --Ralph Roberts