Too Much Choice - Recent Tech Books Confuse Rather Than Educate
We received a well written comment from Paul Rochford of Techspertise about our August 2007 review of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design. Paul stated quite correctly that Sitepoint tends to publish somewhat subject-specific, or at least more sharply focused books, rather than huge and definitively comprehensive reference titles. Our review is definitely complimentary about new author Jason Beaird's focus on typography, layout and color. Since those three items are all the book is supposed to be about, you might think our complaint contradicts the compliment. There's a deeper problem though, and it involves more than just the book's inaccurate title.
I think that Sitepoint and a couple of other publishing marques periodically get a little too cute with their merchandising. To get everything you need from Sitepoint to get started in effective web site development, it's possible to spend well over US$200 by purchasing all of the individual, tightly focused books needed. Shop more extensively however and you can find several different books, each of which contains all of the comprehensive and authoritative information on all of the disciplines (design, content, graphics, SEO, database, security, testing, hosting) needed to develop effective business web sites - for US$60 or thereabouts. Carefully choose one of those titles and be guaranteed of getting a large volume full of authoritative advice and guidance. In the case of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, Sitepoint offers advice and guidance from Beaird, someone who is arguably quite junior and inexperienced—talented though he may be.
Tech book publishers agonize about why they can only sell a few thousands copies of any of these titles. I think the problem is a direct result of the fact that they publish far too many titles which simply don't stand up under careful scrutiny. Offering perceptible value and strong marketplace presence through great variety is a policy that has many adherents, but there aren't enough authoritative and comprehensively skilled web developers available to write great books. My feeling is that too many titles are written by well meaning and dedicated people who unfortunately lack the 'chops' and comprehensive subject knowledge to effectively guide the rest of us.
Business consumers need better quality choices. Competing through variety rather than quality results in mundane products. That sort of competition rarely leads to great profitability or consumer confidence, and it doesn't provide value to business consumers. As a business consumer, I want to browse Amazon or walk into Barnes & Noble, Chapters, Coles, Waterstone's or Foyles and choose from a small variety of good quality technical titles. I do not want to browse or walk into those stores only to be confronted with the problem of deciding which of an overwhelming variety of titles is actually authoritative and comprehensively covers my needs. I shouldn't have to make that costly decision. I want a smaller set of choices to all be worthwhile, allowing me to make a purchasing decision based on how well an author's style, approach or subjective emphasis suits my personal preferences, relying on the publisher's integrity and its choice of authoritative authors and editors to protect the efficacy of whatever choice I make. If publishers can't provide that security of quality and choice, I might as well just search Wikipedia for the information I need for free.
If Sitepoint decides to reissue the book under the title "Typography, Layout and Color for Web Site Design" I can almost guarantee it will get a better review.
I think that Sitepoint and a couple of other publishing marques periodically get a little too cute with their merchandising. To get everything you need from Sitepoint to get started in effective web site development, it's possible to spend well over US$200 by purchasing all of the individual, tightly focused books needed. Shop more extensively however and you can find several different books, each of which contains all of the comprehensive and authoritative information on all of the disciplines (design, content, graphics, SEO, database, security, testing, hosting) needed to develop effective business web sites - for US$60 or thereabouts. Carefully choose one of those titles and be guaranteed of getting a large volume full of authoritative advice and guidance. In the case of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, Sitepoint offers advice and guidance from Beaird, someone who is arguably quite junior and inexperienced—talented though he may be.
Tech book publishers agonize about why they can only sell a few thousands copies of any of these titles. I think the problem is a direct result of the fact that they publish far too many titles which simply don't stand up under careful scrutiny. Offering perceptible value and strong marketplace presence through great variety is a policy that has many adherents, but there aren't enough authoritative and comprehensively skilled web developers available to write great books. My feeling is that too many titles are written by well meaning and dedicated people who unfortunately lack the 'chops' and comprehensive subject knowledge to effectively guide the rest of us.
Business consumers need better quality choices. Competing through variety rather than quality results in mundane products. That sort of competition rarely leads to great profitability or consumer confidence, and it doesn't provide value to business consumers. As a business consumer, I want to browse Amazon or walk into Barnes & Noble, Chapters, Coles, Waterstone's or Foyles and choose from a small variety of good quality technical titles. I do not want to browse or walk into those stores only to be confronted with the problem of deciding which of an overwhelming variety of titles is actually authoritative and comprehensively covers my needs. I shouldn't have to make that costly decision. I want a smaller set of choices to all be worthwhile, allowing me to make a purchasing decision based on how well an author's style, approach or subjective emphasis suits my personal preferences, relying on the publisher's integrity and its choice of authoritative authors and editors to protect the efficacy of whatever choice I make. If publishers can't provide that security of quality and choice, I might as well just search Wikipedia for the information I need for free.
If Sitepoint decides to reissue the book under the title "Typography, Layout and Color for Web Site Design" I can almost guarantee it will get a better review.
Labels: Color, SEO, Sitepoint, Typography, Web Design
posted by Howard Carson, Managing Editor @ 4:13 PM
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