APC&TCP: Project Guru Book Reprint Discontinued

[AndreasM]

It is already known that we try to reprint the English Amiga Guru Book by Ralph Babel.
Some additions were also planned to the original book.

The German Amiga Guru Book is available for some time now.

Nevertheless some Amiga users needed to put some pirated copies of the book online.

The print material is ready and actually we wanted to give it to the printing press.

But since several weeks there is a torrent with a pirated copy of the English Amiga Guru Book online.

Due to the fact that some Amiga users don't show up any support towards those who keep their platform up and try to supply them with information this project is hereby discontinued.

That's why the Amiga Future project AGG which should be financed through the reprint has also been discontinued.

Original statement by Ralph Babel:

Unfortunately, the release of the 800-page extended edition of the Amiga Guru Book (covering OS 3.x and beyond) scheduled for April was preempted by some fool seeding a scan of the older version into one of those pirate-to-pirate networks, eliminating all hopes of me ever being able to recover the cost of a reprint, so the project had to be stopped immediately to avoid further loss of time and money. Thank you, Keith.

http://babel.de
http://www.apc-tcp.de

[Mikey_C]

It is already known that we try to reprint the English Amiga Guru Book by Ralph Babel.
Some additions were also planned to the original book.
The German Amiga Guru Book is available for some time now.

Nevertheless some Amiga users needed to put some pirated copies of the book online.
The print material is ready and actually we wanted to give it to the printing press.

But since several weeks there is a torrent with a pirated copy of the English Amiga Guru Book online.

Due to the fact that some Amiga users don't show up any support towards those who keep their platform up and try to supply them with information this project is hereby discontinued.

That's why the Amiga Future project AGG which should be financed through the reprint has also been discontinued.

Original statement by Ralph Babel:

Unfortunately, the release of the 800-page extended edition of the Amiga Guru Book (covering OS 3.x and beyond) scheduled for April was preempted by some fool seeding a scan of the older version into one of those pirate-to-pirate networks, eliminating all hopes of me ever being able to recover the cost of a reprint, so the project had to be stopped immediately to avoid further loss of time and money. Thank you, Keith.

http://babel.de
http://www.apc-tcp.de

[chiark]

I'd go ahead with the print. If I was interested enough to download it, I'd be interested enough to pay for a physical copy of the thing...

I've never seen the book, never heard of it until now, but damn it I want a copy. For me electronic copies of books don't work so I'd rather have a physical copy.

Why not do a deposit gathering to see if it's still worthwhile?

(I'll drop Ralph a mail. I think there may be ways of limiting financial exposure here)

[musashi5150]

I have the original English book and it's great. I would have bought the newer edition without question. Still, I guess it's not to be. Like most other newer Amiga projects it's just ended in disappointment.

[Shoonay]

Come on, guys! Surely you're not serious?
Honestly now, what did you expect?
Selling a few copies the first day and getting away before it get's pirated?

Today, everything you could see & hear can be pirated, but still having the real deal makes it feel so good! (STFU Ironclaw! )

A real book is a real book, I don't know many people who would consider seriously getting a book and read it all on a computer's screen. My eye's would pop-out!
There's nothing like feeling it phisically, holding it's sharp edges, smelling it soft and smooth scent... and... alright, I'm getting too personal now...
Besides, those who got the pirated version aren't gonna read it anyways...

Go on guys, create some kind of "would you get it or not" poll, some inside view of the community's needs and reconsider printing it!

[alexh]

I am sorry that the project was cancelled, but I for one PREFER electronic copies of books.

• You don't need any storage space
• You don't have to hunt around the house to find them
• You can SEARCH through them very easily.

I would be prepared to pay a token amount (€5-€10?) for the updated Guru book in searchable PDF or some other eBook format.

No overheads... the work is already done... do enough advertising around the Amiga community before launch... Ralph may well get his investment (time) back?

I wonder who Keith was?

They obviously never seriously intended to go to print with their book again if such a little torrent discourages instead of incourages them.

Although I'm not in the "printed is always better" camp a reference book like this is much better than a PDF copy when it comes to inserting multiple bookmarks or just leaving it open during coding. On the other hand I'd probably download a PDF in addition to the printed copy no matter if the PDF is legal or not because full text searches in a printed book kinda suck - see www.pragprog.com for someone who made that into a business model.

But in this case I downloaded the PDF out of curiosity and I never intented to buy the book - I'm not into Amiga programming and I don't think that'll change anytime soon.

[chiark]

Perhaps then it's worth releasing the physical book with a free electronic copy attached to it? I know microsoft do this, and still make money despite the fact that people can (and probably do) just copy the books...

[BippyM]

I'd have paid for it if it was informative enough!

[AndreasM]

The Project are dead.

No additions, no pdf or another way....

[alexh]

Surely that is upto Ralph Babel?

Oh god, not you! I just realised who APC-TCP are

[AndreasM]

Originally Posted by alexh

Oh god, not you!

one reason more for me...

[coze]

ok, so where do we download it ?

[Oli_HD]

This is going to sound real bad but you know what, I couldnt care less.
I have about 50 Amiga books in all (inc service manuals and the like) but I have just as many downloaded (not the Amiga Guru book, not been that interested in it) but lets face it, its a bloody old book and imho there is no harm in uploading copies. (most of the books I downloaded were not torrents by the way)

Now if someone uploads your revised book then I think thats very wrong (although there is something to be said for you selling PDF versions, even of Amiga Future) but 20 years down the line if you found it on the net would you care?

Oh well thats two rants on one page. :-/

[Marcuz]

Can a Global mod please merge these two [insert your favourite adjective here] threads?

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=36620
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=36622

[discomeats]

what's wrong with on demand printing on lulu.com or something similar?

People get the books they pay for, money is exchanged, overheads are minimal.

seriously how many copies of this were going to be sold? my guess somewhere in low double figures at best.

Failing that, as others have said, an ebook for some $$$'s

guess that would get pirated too

oh well, never mind

[Duke]

Pirates are not your customers. There wouldn't have been any difference in the amount of books sold - pirate version or not (well, there would probably be more, free advertising etc.). But I guess some people never learn.

I would pay 5-10 € for a PDF version with no DRM.

[Retro-Nerd]

Originally Posted by Duke

Pirates are not your customers. There wouldn't have been any difference in the amount of books sold - pirate version or not (well, there would probably be more, free advertising etc.).

This is so true. I assume they hadn't enough preorders or something, what a lousy excuse.

[Shoonay]

How it goes in english? "If you don't know what's it about, it's always about money"?

[BuZz]

I would have bought it whether there was a pirate copy floating around or not. Now im forced to get the pirate version if I ever want to have a copy of this book since it's very rare to see them on ebay. I didn't even know about the torrent before. What a silly reaction.. I think most people who were interested in this book would have bought it. I also prefer hard copies rather than ebooks.