From: Paul Lutus Date: 2006-09-22T01:00:31+09:00 Subject: Re: [OT] Rejected Ruby book ideas by O'Reilly Berger, Daniel wrote: > Hi all, > > I'm curious how many people out there have had a Ruby book proposal > rejected by O'Reilly & Associates in the last three years, what your > subject was, when you proposed it, and the person whom you dealt with > (i.e. who specifically rejected your proposal). > > This may seem a strange question - please humor me. You can email me > offlist if you prefer at djberg96 at n0spam at gmail dot com. Remove > the 'at n0spam'. > > Please don't ask why I'm asking, either. I will say nothing at this > time. For now I'm just collecting information. Haven't you been reading the technical press lately? You are doing your employer a disservice by seeming to use your QWest soapbox (your status as a QWest employee) to criticize a book publisher. I say "seeming" because you probably haven't given any thought to the juxtaposition of your sig and your opinion. A reasonable person would probably conclude that there was no connection at all, but corporate attorneys are not reasonable people. Also, most books don't make back their investment, so it is reasonable for a book publisher to be ruthless in rejecting book proposals. There might be too many Ruby book proposals right now, you may not have a track record with publishers (I don't know), there could be any number of perfectly good reasons to reject a proposal. But I think it is a big mistake to air your personal grievance, from your desk at work, on company time, over a QWest sig. Take my advice. Post your opinions from home, not work. Related topic. Barnes & Noble remainders * two-thirds of the titles in their stores. Two-thirds! And their business plan works -- people are impressed by the supermarket atmosphere created by all those titles, and they buy more books as a result. There is more waste in a typical large bookstore than there is at the local supermarket's produce counter. Both businesses successfully market illusions. * "Remainder" means rip the cover off the remaindered book and return that to the publisher for credit. The book itself is tossed in the local trash. -- Paul Lutus http://www.arachnoid.com