Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

September 3, 2009

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

I'm working on a new book specifically covering new features of the latest version of Delphi, like I did for the last two versions. Will take time to be ready, but I'm trying to figure out a ebook subscription business model.

I'm working on a new book specifically covering new features of the latest version of Delphi, as I did for the last two versions. The book is very likely to be called "Delphi 2010 Handbook" (with very little fantasy on my side).

For now I have half of the book ready, with coverage of the IDE, the improvements to the debugger, the Extended RTTI and Attributes support, other compiler changes and new RTL units. I'm still working on VCL, Windows 7 support, touch and Gestures, dbExpress, DataSnap...

The book will take at least another full month to be ready, plus some technical time to become available. However, I'm trying to figure out an ebook subscription business model. I could deliver a draft of the first part of the book in two weeks, and then keep posting updated versions to developers paying a subscription for it.

Questions are:

How much are you willing to pay? What about US 25 dollars (note this won't include the printed book, only the PDF version)?
Do you know any online shop with the infrastructure to manage this (if I had to roll out my own, this will only cause a delay to the book itself)?
Would it make more sense to add to the deal a subscription-only online area for discussing the book content?
What about rounding up the price and adding online seminars for presenting the book material (and again, is there a "not-too-expensive" infrastructure to manage this)?

Needless to say that if you have any other suggestion I'm all ears!

posted by marcocantu @ 12:59AM | 24 Comments [0 Pending]

24 Comments

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

Making pre-release drafts available is very cool. I 
once purchased an ebook at Safari which came with pre-
release drafts. It makes you feel very special in 
some funny way ;-)

$25 would be fine with me.

Comment by Giel on September 3, 14:37

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

25 bucks seems reasonable for a good eBook (PDF).
I've purchased around a dozen books from Manning in the last 6 
months, and most of them on the Early Preview mode. In that way, we 
get incremental updates on the drafts up to (and including) the final 
version. Pretty good to keep on the edge :)

Comment by John on September 3, 14:58

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

My view: I will definitely buy the printed book if is 
priced around the same price as the others in the 
series. I would be willing to pre-order and perhaps 
pay a small premium to see a pre-release PDF as well, 
but not to pay for this on its own without the 
printed version. I have not much interest in the idea 
of a subscription discussion group or on-line 
seminars.

Comment by Tim Frost [] on September 3, 15:00

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

I'm evaluating http://www.tol.it/ecommerce.php
isn't expensive, easy to implement and have a ESD 
feautre.

>Would it make more sense to add to the deal a 
subscription-only online area for discussing the book 
content?

yes of course.

>[...] is there a "not-too-expensive" infrastructure 
to manage this

have you see
http://www.nexusdb.com/support/index.php?q=portal ?
can be useful?

Comment by Daniele Barbato on September 3, 16:22

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

I'm not interested in an ebook, I like to have a 
printed book. For a printed book I'm willing to pay 
up to $40. It would be nice if the printed book 
contains a pdf version (only for easy searching).

I like to order the book via Amazon.com, that's 
better than lulu.

A "subscription-only online area for discussing" is 
not necessary and I'm not interested in "online 
seminars".

Finally a question: Will the german version of your 
Delphi 2009 book ever be released by S&S Verlag? - 
They change the release date every month :-(

Comment by Mathias [http://www.aborange.de] on September 3, 16:49

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

 Consider a package with some of your other books - no
cost to you and added bonus to others, especially
those who last used, say, D7 and are taking the big
step up...

Comment by Michael on September 3, 17:17

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

Hi Marco,

I'd like to see a model where e-book subscribers might
get some kind of discount for buying the physical
book.  Perhaps registered subscribers could get a
dicount code allowing them to buy the book online for
less!  Then I wouldn't thing $25 was too bad; having
the material in an easily searchable form has a lot of
advantages, but there's no doubt the physical book has
it's advantages too.

Maybe on-line seminars could be done along the lines
of CodeRage - in fact that might be a readily
available model to achieve just what you want.  I'm
sure it would be in Embarcadero's interests to support
you in 'getting the message out' & they may be able to
provide the infrastructure to do it as some kind of
marketing promotion!

Just my 2 cents worth.

Regards
Mark

Comment by Mark on September 3, 18:39

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

 	
Hi Marco, has any plans to write the version
"Mastering Delphi 2010," I mean a complete update of
the book.

Comment by RRUZ [http://www.visuald.cl] on September 3, 20:24

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

 49 € is what I consider myself as reasonable for tech
books (printed). For e-Books the half of that is my
personal "preference".

I have a book subscription here:
http://www.manning.com/about/meap.html

no idea about their terms for authors.

Comment by Olaf Monien [http://www.monien.net/blog] on September 3, 22:28

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

eBook is very limited value to me.  I'd gladly pay up 
to $50 for a printed book (lulu style is fine) ... 
more if it was necessary.  I want something I can 
read comfortably in my chair.

Comment by Troy on September 4, 00:24

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

$25 is tiny compared to the expense of my time to read 
and digest a book.  I'd prefer an ebook provided I can 
print it out as it cuts out shipping to New Zealand 
which is usually significant.

Comment by Alister Christie [http://codegearguru.com] on September 4, 00:49

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

1) $25 for ebook is fine
2) may be smth like http://www.pragprog.com/
3) yes
4) interesting

P.S. "THe book will take..." must be "The ..."

Comment by Andrey [] on September 4, 12:29

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

 Great work Marco! I have all (apart from the Web 2.0)
book of yours in hard copy and several of them are
even translated in Bulgarian.

The last time I purchased D2009 Handbook from Lulu.
Why don't you offer D2010 on Lulu as well?

Comment by Gad D Lord [http://www.mtgstudio.com] on September 5, 00:52

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

$25 for the eBook sounds about right to me.
Some others have ask for a printed version, but I dont 
often buy printed books on-line, as the shipping to 
Australia is usually more than the book cost.
I do like on-line seminars (that suits my learning 
style), and would be prepared to pay a little more for 
that, but not if they are just re-plays of the code rage 
seminars I will have already seen by then.
Note: If you do have on-line seminars, please make them 
downloadable, so we can watch over without downloading 
many times. In Australia we have download limits, so we 
have to be more selective about what video we watch on-
line.

Comment by Neville on September 5, 05:54

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

Hi, Marco

When I try Delphi 2010, I found a Component in DataSnap 
Server Group -- TDSHttpService, I tested it , but have 
no idea of it.

So Could you write something about it to make us know it 
how to work?
Thank you so much!

Yours, Evan
9.7.2009

Comment by Evan on September 7, 11:12

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

Hi Marco,

$25 is really a nice price !
I'd like to see an update version of the Mastering 
Delphi books. I have heard that a lot of Delphi 7 
users updated to D2010.A complette Mastering Delphi 
2010 ebook will be fabulous for these people (and for 
us too ;)).

Comment by Stephane Wierzbicki on September 11, 09:13

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

About an updated Mastering Delphi, the problems this 
would be a massive undertaking. Without someone 
financing it (CodeGear, some third-party partners 
willing to have ads in the book) I doubt I could 
undertake it.

Comment by Marco Cantu [http://www.marcocantu.com] on September 11, 09:32

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

Hi Marco,

$25 is a really good price. I think it would be good 
if the ebook can be purchased from 2 locations. The 
first location is when purchasing Delphi from 
Embarcadero where the book is an added option. From 
what I can tell there are only 2 authors for the 
English language which is you and Bob Swart. So I do 
not see any problems in providing both options to the 
user.

The other location would be some online site with the 
facility to perform the secure transaction and get the 
EBook swiftly.

I have just purchased D2010 and the second thing I did 
was get your book and Bob's from Lulu (2009 versions). 
I am glad I did because D2010 help is still not great 
on new features like generics.
My only frustration is I am in New Zealand and it 
always takes a while for books to arrive unless you 
pay top dollar. So an EBook would be soo much quicker.

My 2 cents.

Comment by Paul H on September 11, 11:17

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

 Marco

I was very pleased with 2009 from Lulu.com and $25
seems a very reasonable price. I like the Handbook
idea rather than an updated 'Mastering' series as I
feel you are only adding on rather than repeating
older stuff, however I suspect there will be a need
soon or later for another 'Mastering' for the
beginners among us.

Best wishes with whatever you end up doing.

Chris

Comment by Chris Rumbold on September 11, 12:54

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

$25 price is very reasonable. 
Also I agree with other post from Chris that
eventually new edition of 'Mastering' book for
beginners would be another great idea. 
Delphi needs more new developers to thrive, since it
still remains great (not enough advertised) tool.
Best,
C

Comment by Chris on September 12, 17:09

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

 Count me in for the $25.00 interim price.  And if 
you are up for the webinars I would be interested 
also. But please make them viewable at anytime to 
subscribers (a monthly or annual fee would be fine.)

Thanks.

Comment by Bill Slaughter [bwls@earthlink.net] on September 16, 22:56

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

I am one of the people who updated from earlier
versions of Delphi (pre-7) to 2010.
I am finding that $ markups on printed versions of
your publications in the past here in Australia, have
been horrendous, hence an E-Publication directly from
the publisher via an E-Distributor would be ideal :)
Cuts out all the greedy middle-men wanting their slice
of the pie, plus some ;)
Regards

Comment by David Hughes on September 27, 04:22

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

I purchased Delphi 2007 Handbook and Delphi 2009 
Handbook.  Pricing was fair.

I prefer to order from Amazon.com, especially if the 
book is eligible for Amazon Prime shipping.

I prefer printed books, but enjoy having PDF to 
search.

Purchasing a printed copy should qualify for getting 
the PDF.  Increase the price of the printed book to 
include the price of the PDF if download fee cannot 
be paid by Amazon or Paypal or Google.

Comment by Rich on November 4, 07:24

Delphi 2010 Handbook in the Works

How the work on the new book progressing?
Is there a feed to subscribe to for the ongoing stuff?

Can't wait to see what is inside. Especially the new
DataSnap stuff.

Comment by Gad D Lord [http://www.mtgstudio.com] on November 18, 00:56

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