Keith Devens .com

No tears for Wrox

Via Erik, No Tears for Wrox

I'm not shedding any tears at the news that Wrox has finally gone under. Those ugly red books line the shelves at the local bookstores, taking up space that could be used for quality books. I really hope this opens up the tech book market a bit.

What exactly was wrong? The Wrox equation was simple: quantity, not quality. Unfortuantely, it's an equation that seemed to be working for them. (making their downfall all the more surprising) If you are a programmer about to spend $40-$60 on a new tech book, what are you going to look for? Most people I see in the book store seem to grab the biggest one and assume it's the best value for their money.

The multi-author strategy made turnaround time on those books pretty fast, I'm sure. But the books themselves tended to read more like a series of loosely connected articles instead of a single book on a topic. Keeping a book consistent with a co-author is tough, but it's hopeless when you have one author per chapter.

Amen! My thoughts exactly. I'd never buy a Wrox book unless I had to have a book, and one of their books was the only book on the subject.

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14:34 (utc-5)