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

Mon Mar 30 18:12:04 PDT 2009

Thing is, with manuals, there are no editions. Sometimes software gets
updated too often for the writers to keep up, even paid ones in an
enterprise situation. In that case, Release notes and Patch doc of
some sort are sufficient. For Open Source products, those types of
docs might live only on the open source project's wiki or release
pages, but not on FLOSS Manuals. I see Sugar's updates the same way -
there's a manual for 0.84, but it's not an edition. When we update for
0.86, we probably won't even need a new ISBN or need to call it an
edition. There will be some of the six-month releases are not going to
be worthy of more than release notes, is my guess. This 0.84 release
is quite substantial and a break-off point though, so it's important
to do a full book update. 0.86 may be the same way but we'll make that
call when we come to it.

Editions aren't the right term for "manuals" in the enterprise
environment either.

I also wonder what do Emma Jane or Janet say about open source
manuals? Does Drupal or Open Office get a new "manual" each release,
or just release notes?

Now, to offer another viewpoint on books, I've run into a separate
"book" request at work before, and in a consulting request - the
company wants a 3rd party book from a publisher for a product. That is
a different type of book than a manual. The interesting thing about
FLOSS Manuals is that we are at the cusp of being able to offer a
fully branded book set that could take off as much as the Head Start
series did (those books are amazing and writers have to audition to be
considered to write for them). We offer our own voice and style and
it's pretty darn good. Thing is, where I work, we don't have the print
run numbers for someone to find writing a 3rd party book worth their
time/effort. But with a toolset like FLOSS Manuals, an independent
group of authors writing about open source may find it worth their
time and effort - savings in teaching materials, reuse/remix savings,
and so on.

For example, writing a "3rd party book" (there's probably a better
term but I'm not sure what it is) about Sugar (like a teachers
workbook) would be a very different thing than a manual for Sugar. But
you may save time/effort by remixing in chapters from the Sugar Users
Guide.

So I guess I would say FLOSS Manuals is at this interesting junction
where we provide classic manuals but also provide something like "3rd
party" books. It's a neat junction to be at, but there are different
expectations for a manual than a "3rd party" book. That's my take of
the situation. I'd love to hear from others' experiences as well.

Anne

On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 2:18 PM, David Farning <dfarning at sugarlabs.org> wrote:
> 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
>> Founder FLOSS Manuals
>> German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563
>> Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
>> irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals
>>
>> "Free manuals for free software"
>> http://www.flossmanuals.net/about
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Discuss mailing list
>> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
>> http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
> http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net
>

-- 
Anne Gentle
email: annegentle at justwriteclick.com
blog: www.justwriteclick.com