[FM Discuss] Editions [was : ISBN Numbers Summary]

[David Farning]

On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 2:05 PM, adam hyde <adam at flossmanuals.net> wrote:
> hi,
>
> This has been a very interesting and educational discussion. I have one
> basic question - why do we need to update the isbn per 'edition'?
> Indeed, why even talk of editions?
>
> I find the idea of editions belongs to a mode of operating that doesn't
> suit at all how we actually work. It would be very odd for us to get to
> a point of questioning if this is edition 1.2.3 or 7. For example. I
> have published 12 revisions of the command line book since it was
> released. What place does an edition have in this work flow?
>
> I don't see it. I am very loathe for us to get stuck on this because it
> seems to be a term that belongs to how publishing works and not how we
> work. We are in a transitional moment, its true, and we are offering a
> way of creating sophisticated content which doesn't currently sit easily
> within existing publishing practice and occassionally we will have to
> bend a little to fit into the existing practices...but I don't see this
> as necessary within the context of this current discussion until vendors
> start pushing FM books and stamping their feet because we dont make
> sense to them. Then we might have to harmonise a little with their
> inventory management processes and call something 'edition x'.

Yes, I agree that FM certainly makes the concepts of reprints and
editions rather vague.

For Sugar Labs the notion of 'Edition' rears its ugly head when
talking about Sugar.82, Sugar.84, and Sugar.86.  At any given time, we
will have at least three different possible versions of Sugar in
production environment.  The software appears and behaves differently
enough that a user referencing the .86 book while working with the .82
software will become confused.

I am using edition, possibly incorrectly, to denote the 'book' that
documents a particular software version.

david

> Until then I would very much enjoy being liberated from ideas of
> Editions when discussing FM. It doesnt seem to me to reflect how we
> actually work, and it suggests a workflow and paradigm that we don't,
> from choice, fit.
>
> adam
>
>
>
> On Sat, 2009-03-28 at 10:32 -0400, C. Scott Ananian wrote:
>> On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 8:50 PM, David Farning <dfarning at sugarlabs.org> wrote:
>> > A second level of confusions results because in addition of buying a
>> > block of ISBNs a publisher must register a book's the title in 'Books
>> > in Print' Database.  It is via accessing the Books in print database
>> > that other wholesaler and resellers can order and sell the book.
>> >
>> > In addition to the 'Books in Print' publishers can register with other
>> > services to raise their profile.  To extend the phone metaphor past
>> > its useful life.... Every phone number is listed in the white pages.
>> > The more you pay the bigger your add in the yellow pages.
>>
>> I'd be wary of paying for there "other services".  Really, Books in
>> Print is more like the white pages, not the yellow pages.  It's free
>> (more or less) and just provides a <isbn number> to <contact
>> information for distributor> mapping, so that if you want 500 copies
>> of a particular ISBN, you look up the right phone number and call up
>> the distributor to order them.  That's it, it's easy.
>>
>> The trick is that many large retailers don't like dealing with small
>> distributors.  So even though the "number's in the book" for the ISBN,
>> they won't pick up the phone and call, because their ordering systems
>> aren't integrated, or they've have bad experiences with billing, or
>> they've been scammed in the past, or it's just more trouble than it's
>> worth.
>>
>> People offer lots of suggestions for how to "make it worth their
>> while" (these "other services") but in my experience and opinion,
>> they're mostly scams -- and often counter productive scams, which will
>> cause businesses to avoid lulu-printed books even more when the hook
>> is discovered.  It's not that hard to get your book listed, and Amazon
>> *will* stock your book if people are buying it.  Your task is to get
>> people to buy it.  "Just being listed at Amazon.com" doesn't make
>> people buy the book.
>>   --scott
>>
> --
> Adam Hyde
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