The Best of SQLServerCentral.com 2002
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Comments posted to this topic are about the content posted at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/thebestofsqlservercentralcom2002.asp
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Steve,
Excellent idea! Certainly save me time by printing out articles etc and storing them myself. Quite often I don't have time to sit at work and read through every article. Also, it's good to be away from the monitor and to be able to relax at home and read them in my own time...and in the comfort of my sofa..!!!!
...so yes, you got my vote. The book would be awesome!
Clive
Clive Strong
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Steve,
Good idea.
I too like having printed material to review.
I stare at a computer monitor way to long.
Andrew
What's the business problem you're trying to solve? -
Hey Steve,
I clicked on your book link (Transact-SQL)
and it took me to the Rudoldph Giuliani Leadership Book: Here is the link http://btob.barnesandnoble.com/home.asp?userid=6XGEFW0ANE&btob=Y
However, have to say that quite a lot of tech's could use a good course on leadership!
What's the business problem you're trying to solve? -
I think a printed copy would be excellent however I do see issues. First how do you copyright material such as this or do you have an open copyright listed in your book (all content property of their respective authors...), I am curious as I have seen other sites try this and have a lot of push back. Also, there have been many good articles produced that, although good have run into the realm of updates in forum topic, will you be including these in addition. Next, what type of sanity checking will be done, many good articles have grammatical or typo errors (not probably a big issue with programmers thou). Will this book be availalbe to folks thru Amazon and such or just thru SQL Server Central.
I do see positives thou. Readily availalbe items. If something should happen to SSC then the material is still available (don't see that happening but you never know so I included). Potential long term revenue outside of advertisers only to keep site running for long periods to come.
Not sure I would buy but then again I haven't read all the articles on the site so I might, also might buy just to have a second book with stuff by me on my shelf (I am a published poet in an annual from several years ago, if anyone is curious what I mean
).My final statement would be to let the authors know and have them decide if there is are any changes they wish to make to the articles beforehand or if maybe they want to make any adjustments before it goes to review and print.
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Copyright is an issue. Between Steve, Brian, and myself we have about 120 articles from last year. Other authors hold the copyright to their own, we would have to get a release. I expect some will, some won't. Depending on how this works out, we may (remember I said may!) change our author agreement to include limited print rights for future submissions.
Forum posts that are associated with the article I consider as valuable as the article itself. They usually round off the rough edges, present the other side, etc. We're thinking to include them, or some of them. Have to see what how many pages it would add up to.
We've discussed the grammar/typo checking, right now we're leaning toward printing as is, just applying a common style to make it a little more readable. Not changing it keeps us honest! More practically, it lets us keep the time investment and therefore the resulting price down. Part of this is we want to retain the 'conversational' style of writing, not try to clean it up into a 'formal' presentation like most technical books.
We'll release here first, then make available on Amazon.
Any ideas/comments are good - its a sizable investment, we'd like to get it right!
Andy
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I think it's a great idea! I would probably buy the book. One thing to check on with copywrites is ... are you making a profit on this book? I believe (and you should check with a legal adviser on this) that you have the right to publish the articles, etc if you are not making a profit on them (you can charge to recoup the cost of printing, shipping, etc). Here's why I believe this is so....the authors have already given you permission to publish their material as long as you aren't making a profit on it. That's why you can post the articles on the website. I believe it would be the same for the printed material.
About the typos/grammar errors, I really would like to see them fixed. Typos bug me, especially when I make them. And that's what editting is all about, spell checker makes it easier to check for typos these days.
-SQLBill
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What would be nice would be a cd with the documents!
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Yes, I would love to have the information on a cd. Would save me time in searching for the information I am looking for.
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I believe the proposed price $15.00 is OK. Beats the price of most other books on the subject
.Have to agree with SQLBill on the typos. They have to be fixed. It's very annoying to read through a text with typos. Same holds for abbreviations and the like.
And I really like the idea of the CD. Makes 'full text' searches easier, unless a (very extensive) index is added for fast reference of the different articles.
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You've got my vote, Steve!
And if the price of the book is reasonable, I'll subscribe...
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I'll agree with the CD, I like to keep all my doc handy on my laptop.
Add a couple of bucks, or do an either / or / both option.
KlK, MCSE
KlK -
What about the possibility of correcting typos and making it an ebook? It could be in .pdf format and we could purchase it and download it to our computer. Then if we so choose, we could save it to a cd for our own use.
-SQLBill
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Ebook/CD is possible. We'll go the extra mile on copyright, no author approval, it wont go to print. We'll try to make a little profit to cover hardware upgrades, etc.
Only problem with the ebook is to keep the price of the printed copy down we need to do a bulk purchase. If ebook sales cut into that, our cost might go up, and Im thinking at much higher it's not a good project for us and not a good value. Thoughts?
Andy
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For the price, it may be better to stay strictly eBook. Certainly printable for any who want it, but it also allows those who prefer electronic media to keep it on their systems.
K. Brian Kelley
http://www.truthsolutions.com/
Author: Start to Finish Guide to SQL Server Performance Monitoring
http://www.netimpress.com/shop/product.asp?ProductID=NI-SQL1
K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley
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