Fwd: William, Write a "Sagemath" Book for Packt Publishing!
William Stein
Many Sage Developers are getting the following form-letter email...
William
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mary Nadar <ma...@packtpub.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 1:23 AM
Subject: William, Write a "Sagemath" Book for Packt Publishing!
To: wst...@gmail.com
Hi William,
I am an author recruiter at Packt Publishing (www.packtpub.com). We
publish computer-related books on a wide variety of IT topics.
We are planning to publish a new book on Sagemath. While trying to
look out for potential authors to write this book, I came across one
of your blog and website which shows your expertise in Sagemath. This
gives me an impression that you could be a potential author for this
book.
Details of the Book:
Title: Sagemath Beginners Guide
It is planned to be a 300 page book targeted at Scientists,
Mathematicians and Engineers who want a practical introduction to
Sage.
Prerequisite for readers: No knowledge of Sage is expected, basic
knowledge of other programming languages will be an advantage.
To give you an idea about the way things works at Packt:
- The editorial team at Packt works with the author through out the project.
- We pay a royalty of 16% and an advance against it.
- The marketing team at Packt ensures that the book is well promoted.
- In its ongoing commitment to OpenSource, Packt donates a percentage
of revenue generated by the book to the OpenSource project on which it
is based. We have donated more than 150 000 dollars to various
OpenSource projects since inception in 2004.
Could you please let me know if you find it interesting to write this book?
Regards,
Mary.
--
Mary Nadar
Author Relationship Executive
Packt Publishing
www.PacktPub.com
MSN: ma...@packtpub.com
Interested in becoming an author? Visit http://authors.packtpub.com
for all the information you need about writing for Packt.
--
William Stein
Professor of Mathematics
University of Washington
http://wstein.org
Bill Hart
kind.
They appear to be a real publisher. They focus on IT titles. They do
have staff (usually hired from India, but with "impeccable" English)
who work with the author over a series of revisions and through peer
review, typesetting, indexing, etc...
I don't recall seeing any of their publications. But I checked and
some of them get very good reviews online (good authors I guess).
As with all such things, beware you are dealing with the real people
and not some phoney. I see the links in the form letter don't direct
to the websites they say they do, but instead go via google. Not sure
what's up with that....
Bill.
Justin C. Walker
As with all such things, beware you are dealing with the real people
and not some phoney. I see the links in the form letter don't direct
to the websites they say they do, but instead go via google. Not sure
what's up with that....
Bill Hart
I think this publisher is for real and actually does quite a good job.
Apart from the fact that the cover illustrations have nothing at all
to do with the content, their books seem well-written. They publish a
lot of titles and they offer them much cheaper if you buy them as E-
books. They ship lots of places if you want a physical copy. They also
offer a single chapter from each book for evaluation before you
purchase.
They also do seem to add value to the publication after the author is
done with it.
It is definitely publication on a budget, but their prices seem to
reflect that, and Sage does seem to be something they would definitely
want to publish a book on. If I was an expert Sage user, had more
time, etc, etc. I'd definitely take this seriously.
Bill.
Justin C. Walker
I don't think it is a click-through.
I think this publisher is for real and actually does quite a good job.
--
Justin C. Walker, Curmudgeon-At-Large
--------
Men are from Earth.
Women are from Earth.
Deal with it.
--------
Volker Braun
> I was only commenting on the trip through Google, not trying to get engaged in discussions about religion and politics.
through google when you click on it. Wiliam posted a plain-text
message, any hyperlinking is added by google groups.
Volker
William Stein
> I don't think it is a click-through.
>
> I think this publisher is for real and actually does quite a good job.
>
> Apart from the fact that the cover illustrations have nothing at all
> to do with the content, their books seem well-written. They publish a
> lot of titles and they offer them much cheaper if you buy them as E-
> books. They ship lots of places if you want a physical copy. They also
> offer a single chapter from each book for evaluation before you
> purchase.
>
> They also do seem to add value to the publication after the author is
> done with it.
>
> It is definitely publication on a budget, but their prices seem to
> reflect that, and Sage does seem to be something they would definitely
> want to publish a book on. If I was an expert Sage user, had more
> time, etc, etc. I'd definitely take this seriously.
I definitely would not. In my opinion, the are only two reasonable
options for publishing Sage-related books:
1. Use an open license and self publish through, e.g., Lulu. The
Sage community can do the hard editing work better than most
publishers. (Here's I'm talking mainly about Minh Nguyen.) I think
you'll earn as much money as you would get from Packt, but you get
100% of the profits instead of 18%, so end buyers pay far less (and
get more -- due to the open license).
2. Publish with a very high quality reputable publisher, e.g.,
Springer, O'Reilly, AMS, Cambridge, Oxford. They understand the math
world and can advertise. And they also are starting to understand
"freeness".... Case in point: http://wstein.org/ent/
-- William
>
> Bill.
>
> On 28 June, 21:33, "Justin C. Walker" <jus...@mac.com> wrote:
>> On 28 Jun, 2010, at 1:20 PM, Bill Hart wrote:
>>
>> > As with all such things, beware you are dealing with the real people
>> > and not some phoney. I see the links in the form letter don't direct
>> > to the websites they say they do, but instead go via google. Not sure
>> > what's up with that....
>>
>> Maybe it's a form of "click-through" that somehow makes money for someone. It's the new economy, all over again.
>>
>> Justin
>>
>> --
>> Justin C. Walker, Curmudgeon at Large
>> Director
>> Institute for the Enhancement of the Director's Income
>> -----------
>> Nobody knows the trouble I've been
>> -----------
>
> --
> To post to this group, send an email to sage-...@googlegroups.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+...@googlegroups.com
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel
> URL: http://www.sagemath.org
Bill Hart
google thing, not the original.
Bill.
>
> Volker
William Stein
>
>
> On 28 June, 22:21, Volker Braun <vbraun.n...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Jun 28, 9:49 pm, "Justin C. Walker" <jus...@mac.com> wrote:
>>
>> > I was only commenting on the trip through Google, not trying to get engaged in discussions about religion and politics.
>>
>> For the record, any url posted on google groups always redirects
>> through google when you click on it. Wiliam posted a plain-text
>> message, any hyperlinking is added by google groups.
>
> Except, that for me, these links don't work.
>
Are you using Google Chrome for your web browser? Starting about one
week ago, for me all google redirect links (in gmail) have stopped
working for me. I have to use Firefox instead for opening them.
William
>
>>
>> Volker
>
> --
> To post to this group, send an email to sage-...@googlegroups.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+...@googlegroups.com
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel
> URL: http://www.sagemath.org
>
--
Bill Hart
On 28 June, 22:21, William Stein <wst...@gmail.com> wrote:
"openness". Where is the tex file? Where is the OSI license text?
Last time I published a paper with Springer, they sent me 50 free
electronic copies of my own damned paper with DRM on them and asked if
I wanted to buy 50 more electronic copies! Every time I publish an
article in a Springer Journal I have to sign a damned copyright
assignment form *and physically fax it to them*. This is bloody
inconvenient. I'm sure Springer is changing, and I am sure their book
publishing division is completely different to their journal
publication section. But really....
The whole point of Packt's model is they pay the author a royalty
advance up-front, regardless of the success of the book, then make a
donation to the Open Source project involved (I'm sure it's pretty
small). That possibly gives an author a chance to actually sit down
and write a book that they otherwise wouldn't write. They also add
value to the book by offering publisher expertise throughout the
process, unlikely to be present amongst a bunch of computer
scientists. They *specialise* in Open Source topics, and many very
decent Open Source projects have chosen to publish with them. And
Lulu?
And Packt are reputable. They get reviews on Slashdot, just the same
as O'Reilly.
Bill.
P.S: I don't give a toss whether anyone publishes a Sage book through
Packt or not. This isn't about "religion", though I admit, I don't
"get" Open Source publishing completely. Were we building a community
of publishers, I might, because then it would make sense to say that
we felt we had the expertise to do it better than professional
companies charging exorbitant fees to do the same thing, and keeping
information proprietary.
>
> -- William
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Bill.
>
> > On 28 June, 21:33, "Justin C. Walker" <jus...@mac.com> wrote:
> >> On 28 Jun, 2010, at 1:20 PM, Bill Hart wrote:
>
> >> > As with all such things, beware you are dealing with the real people
> >> > and not some phoney. I see the links in the form letter don't direct
> >> > to the websites they say they do, but instead go via google. Not sure
> >> > what's up with that....
>
> >> Maybe it's a form of "click-through" that somehow makes money for someone. It's the new economy, all over again.
>
> >> Justin
>
> >> --
> >> Justin C. Walker, Curmudgeon at Large
> >> Director
> >> Institute for the Enhancement of the Director's Income
> >> -----------
> >> Nobody knows the trouble I've been
> >> -----------
>
> > --
> > To post to this group, send an email to sage-...@googlegroups.com
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+...@googlegroups.com
Bill Hart
On 28 June, 23:19, William Stein <wst...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On 28 June, 22:21, Volker Braun <vbraun.n...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> On Jun 28, 9:49 pm, "Justin C. Walker" <jus...@mac.com> wrote:
>
> >> > I was only commenting on the trip through Google, not trying to get engaged in discussions about religion and politics.
>
> >> For the record, any url posted on google groups always redirects
> >> through google when you click on it. Wiliam posted a plain-text
> >> message, any hyperlinking is added by google groups.
>
> > Except, that for me, these links don't work.
>
> > Bill.
>
> Are you using Google Chrome for your web browser? Starting about one
> week ago, for me all google redirect links (in gmail) have stopped
> working for me. I have to use Firefox instead for opening them.
all the time now too. I hope they fix it soon, because I prefer it by
far over other choices. I did file one bug report....
>
> William
>
>
>
> >> Volker
>
> > --
> > To post to this group, send an email to sage-...@googlegroups.com
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+...@googlegroups.com
William Stein
I wrote: 'And they also are starting to understand "freeness"....'.
This is dramatically different than what you implied I wrote.
William
Robert Miller
On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 4:47 PM, Bill Hart <goodwi...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Then I don't understand. What do you mean by free? I don't see how
> anything at all about Springer exemplifies even a beginning of an
> understanding. They are to me the archetypal proprietary publisher...
>
> To contrast them to Packt.... well, OK, I can download your Springer
> book without paying for it. I suppose it is conceivable Packt wouldn't
> allow this, if asked.
>
> On one point, I will agree with you. Packt are not a mathematical
> publisher, They focus on IT only. Springer is a specialist in
> mathematical publishing. No doubt they also have a *lot* more money to
> advertise your book than Packt.
>
> Bill.
>
> On 29 June, 00:37, William Stein <wst...@gmail.com> wrote:
> --
> To post to this group, send an email to sage-...@googlegroups.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+...@googlegroups.com
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel
> URL: http://www.sagemath.org
>
--
Robert L. Miller
http://www.rlmiller.org/
Bill Hart
Bill Hart
I removed my follow up to this, FWIW. I see you mean at least the
information in the book is now "free", which is a good thing.
Bill.
On 29 June, 00:37, William Stein <wst...@gmail.com> wrote:
Volker Braun
visit google groups with chrome 5.0.375. What fixed it for me was to
delete all google.groups.com cookies in chrome (Options->Under the
Hood->Content Settings->Show Cookies). Not only can I visit google
groups, I can also open links just fine now :-)
Volker
Simon King
On Jun 29, 9:29 am, Volker Braun <vbraun.n...@gmail.com> wrote:
> About a week ago I started getting an infinite redirect when trying to
> visit google groups with chrome 5.0.375. What fixed it for me was to
> delete all google.groups.com cookies in chrome (Options->Under the
> Hood->Content Settings->Show Cookies).
(deletion of cookies) was the same.
Cheers,
Simon