comp.lang.idl-pvwave archive: archive » Re: Market Research 101

Home » Public Forums » archive » Re: Market Research 101

Show: Today's Messages :: Show Polls :: Message Navigator
E-mail to friend

Re: Market Research 101 [message #74992 is a reply to message #74990]

Wed, 09 February 2011 16:04

SonicKenking
Messages: 51
Registered: October 2010

Member

On Feb 10, 8:44 am, David Fanning <n...@dfanning.com> wrote:
> Folks,
>
> OK, today's topic: "What you want, verses what you
> can get". Or, perhaps, "What you want, verses what
> you can afford."
>
> I wrote this book of mine with only one idea
> in mind: I wanted a book that was both informative
> and beautiful. It turns out that informative you
> can get for a dime a dozen. Beautiful, well, that
> costs a bit more. Quite a bit more, as it turns out. :-)
>
> So, here is the question I should have started with,
> according to my MBA son. How much would you be willing
> to pay for a book about graphics programming in IDL?
>
> Let's start with a couple of assumptions. Let's assume
> it is a pretty good book and that it contains information
> that may be of some interest to you. Would you pay $25,
> $45, $85, $135? Where do you start drawing the line?
> What causes you to draw the line? Do the aesthetics of
> the book have anything to do with it? Do you care whether
> it is in back or white or color? Cloth cover or paperback?
> Sexy picture of the author on the back cover?
>
> At your price point, whatever it is, would you expect
> a full-color book, or would you expect black and white
> illustrations? (Keep in mind this is a book about
> scientific visualization techniques.) If you expected
> color, how much of a premium (above what you would pay
> for a black and white book) would you be willing to pay?
> What would you think is "reasonable"?
>
> Would it matter to you if the book was in black and white,
> but you could gain access to a color PDF of the book for
> some nominal charge if you bought the book?
>
> Or, are you one of those modern kinds of readers who
> disdain physical books, and only consider buying a book
> if you can load on your Kindle or IPad?
>
> Obviously, I have to make some choices here in the next
> week or so. And, obviously, I don't expect everyone will
> be willing to cough up $150 for a book, even if it is
> personally autographed by the author. But I would like to
> get a sense of what people might expect to pay for a technical
> book and what they would expect to get for their money.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Cheers,
>
> David
>
> --
> David Fanning, Ph.D.
> Fanning Software Consulting, Inc.
> Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming:http://www.idlcoyote.com/
> Sepore ma de ni thui. ("Perhaps thou speakest truth.")

I'd expect the book to be under $100. Paperback is fine. Hardcover
will be awesome (but not necessary). For a paper book, black and white
illustrations are OK. Readers can consult to the electronic version
for colors. Or even without any electronic version, they can still
experiment the sample code and create the full-color plots themselves
on computers.

I prefer physical books to electronic ones. I like the feeling of
turning pages when reading a physical book. The book does not have to
be overly decorated. Your previous book (2nd ed.) looks great, though
I prefer perfect bindings. As for the cover, I really like the arts of
the computer books published by O'Reilly.

I don't think the system admin would upgrade our IDL 6.4 any time
soon. So I'll try convince the library to buy a copy of the book in
addition to my own.

Yang

Report message to a moderator

[Message index]

		Re: Market Research 101 By: Teddy Allen on Thu, 10 February 2011 11:33
		Re: Market Research 101 By: David Fanning on Thu, 10 February 2011 10:48
		Re: Market Research 101 By: astroboy2k on Thu, 10 February 2011 10:38
		Re: Market Research 101 By: David Fanning on Thu, 10 February 2011 10:19
		Re: Market Research 101 By: David Fanning on Thu, 10 February 2011 09:28
		Re: Market Research 101 By: Carsten Lechte on Thu, 10 February 2011 09:18
		Re: Market Research 101 By: David Fanning on Thu, 10 February 2011 09:05
		Re: Market Research 101 By: Carsten Lechte on Thu, 10 February 2011 08:42
		Re: Market Research 101 By: David Fanning on Thu, 10 February 2011 08:31
		Re: Market Research 101 By: ben.bighair on Thu, 10 February 2011 08:11
		Re: Market Research 101 By: David Fanning on Thu, 10 February 2011 07:59
		Re: Market Research 101 By: pgrigis on Thu, 10 February 2011 07:30
		Re: Market Research 101 By: Mike Potter on Wed, 09 February 2011 23:53
		Re: Market Research 101 By: SonicKenking on Wed, 09 February 2011 16:04
		Re: Market Research 101 By: penteado on Wed, 09 February 2011 15:41
		Re: Market Research 101 By: David Fanning on Wed, 09 February 2011 15:10
		Re: Market Research 101 By: Paul Van Delst[1] on Wed, 09 February 2011 14:53
		Re: Market Research 101 By: David Fanning on Wed, 09 February 2011 14:14
		Re: Market Research 101 By: Jean[2] on Wed, 09 February 2011 14:03
		Re: Market Research 101 By: cgguido on Fri, 11 February 2011 11:27
		Re: Market Research 101 By: Paul.Bowyer@gmail.com on Fri, 11 February 2011 01:46

Previous Topic:	Pre-Publication Release of New Book
Next Topic:	Preferred way to get multiple returns from a function

-=] Back to Top [=-

[ Syndicate this forum (XML) ] [

] [

]

Current Time: Fri Oct 10 04:51:07 PDT 2025

Total time taken to generate the page: 0.40099 seconds