Posted: Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 1:18 pm. Permalink
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Notes: 13.

I’m trying to learn TextMate for my work with TUAW. Someone sent me to this tutorial which looks pretty good. Right at the beginning he mentions TextMate: Power Editing for the Mac and links to its home page shown in the picture. They want $22.50 for the eBook version, $30 for the Paper Book version, and $40 for both. At which point I pop over to Amazon where I find the same book for $19.77. I have no business degree. I don’t claim to understand the publishing world. All I can tell you is what goes through my mind when I come across something like this: “If I am spending $30 on the dead-tree version of the book, why doesn’t that include the eBook version? And before you answer, remember that I can buy the exact same dead-tree version from Amazon for $10 less.” Every article I’ve read about publishing says that very few people ever make money from it, especially niche computer books. Every article I’ve read about ebooks suggests that they are not very successful or popular, except the Kindle. What does the Kindle have going for it? One big part is price — most new books are $10. Sure you can find the odd case where the Kindle version is more than the print version, but that’s rather the exception than the rule. Would I ever pay $22.50 for an ebook on TextMate? Not on your life. Would I pay $10 for it? Without a doubt. One of these days a computer publisher is going to start bundling ebooks with print-books for a reasonable price slightly more than what Amazon is selling the print-book for. Until then, ebooks are going to be a fragment of a fraction of the market.

I’m trying to learn TextMate for my work with TUAW. Someone sent me to this tutorial which looks pretty good.

Right at the beginning he mentions TextMate: Power Editing for the Mac and links to its home page shown in the picture.

They want $22.50 for the eBook version, $30 for the Paper Book version, and $40 for both.

At which point I pop over to Amazon where I find the same book for $19.77.

I have no business degree. I don’t claim to understand the publishing world. All I can tell you is what goes through my mind when I come across something like this:

“If I am spending $30 on the dead-tree version of the book, why doesn’t that include the eBook version? And before you answer, remember that I can buy the exact same dead-tree version from Amazon for $10 less.”

Every article I’ve read about publishing says that very few people ever make money from it, especially niche computer books. Every article I’ve read about ebooks suggests that they are not very successful or popular, except the Kindle. What does the Kindle have going for it? One big part is price — most new books are $10. Sure you can find the odd case where the Kindle version is more than the print version, but that’s rather the exception than the rule.

Would I ever pay $22.50 for an ebook on TextMate? Not on your life. Would I pay $10 for it? Without a doubt.

One of these days a computer publisher is going to start bundling ebooks with print-books for a reasonable price slightly more than what Amazon is selling the print-book for. Until then, ebooks are going to be a fragment of a fraction of the market.