Re: using 3rd-party books

[Jonathan Stoppi <stops -at- qualum -dot- com>]

Glenn Maxey wrote:

>>We ordered up a bunch of copies and were shipping it with our product.
Of course, we had the permission of the Professor, but even without
permission, he got the normal royalties from his publisher for our
purchase of the books.

The downside was that his book was specific to an earlier release of our
product. He wasn't in the business of updating it and keeping it current
with our platform. We had no control over the text and examples.
Improvement to the product got his book out of synch quickly with what
we were doing.<<

Would that all software developers were so enlightened.  I broke into
technical writing by "shadowing" four consecutive releases of a CAD product,
providing a detailed tutorial on its use in architecture.  It filled a need
- the software's own manuals were not much more than logical or alphabetical
feature descriptions - and sold in thousands of copies worldwide.

Did the software company get the hint and offer to include it as part of the
package?  

Did they heck. I got free upgrades of the software, smiles and claps on the
back at trade shows, plus a promise to distribute it in the US for me at 25%
discount to them - which in practice turned out to be 50% once it came to
actually writing out the cheque.

I gave it up for contracted technical writing on a full-time basis for other
firms.  Much less work, much more money.

I'm still getting requests from readers for a new edition, and having to
turn them away.  Shame.

- Jonathan Stoppi
  Dances with Elves
  Stops -at- Qualum -dot- com
========================


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