M
Mike Yawn
A year ago this week, my book "J2EE and JAX: Developing Web Applications
and Web Services", was published by Prentice-Hall. The book is an
overview of J2EE technologies (servlets, JSPs, EJBs) with a particular
emphasis on web-service technologies ('JAX' APIs)
Although I only have actual sales figures for only about the first 3
months the book was on the market, I've watched sales rank on Amazon.com
and tried to keep an eye on local bookstores to see if the book was
moving well. The results have been disappointing, and I'm just curious
as to whether anyone who has read the book - or perhaps looked at the
book and then decided to buy something else instead - might offer an
opinion as to why.
It's easy to point to all sorts of factors outside my control - the
saturation of the market, the amount of marketing done by the publisher,
perhaps reader preferences for books that are part of another series,
etc., but ultimately I feel like if this didn't do as well as I feel it
should have, the buck has to stop with me as the author.
So if anybody reading this has read the book, I'd like to know what you
thought. If you considered buying the book and ultimately made another
choice, can you say what affected your choice?
I realize this is somewhat like dousing myself in gasoline and handing
matches to the crowd (an internet crowd, no less), but my desire to know
the answer has for the moment overwhelmed any instinct for ego protection.
Mike Yawn
(future former author?)
and Web Services", was published by Prentice-Hall. The book is an
overview of J2EE technologies (servlets, JSPs, EJBs) with a particular
emphasis on web-service technologies ('JAX' APIs)
Although I only have actual sales figures for only about the first 3
months the book was on the market, I've watched sales rank on Amazon.com
and tried to keep an eye on local bookstores to see if the book was
moving well. The results have been disappointing, and I'm just curious
as to whether anyone who has read the book - or perhaps looked at the
book and then decided to buy something else instead - might offer an
opinion as to why.
It's easy to point to all sorts of factors outside my control - the
saturation of the market, the amount of marketing done by the publisher,
perhaps reader preferences for books that are part of another series,
etc., but ultimately I feel like if this didn't do as well as I feel it
should have, the buck has to stop with me as the author.
So if anybody reading this has read the book, I'd like to know what you
thought. If you considered buying the book and ultimately made another
choice, can you say what affected your choice?
I realize this is somewhat like dousing myself in gasoline and handing
matches to the crowd (an internet crowd, no less), but my desire to know
the answer has for the moment overwhelmed any instinct for ego protection.
Mike Yawn
(future former author?)