What O'Reilly don't want authors to know
Mike Hendrickson has been busy updating O'Reilly's analysis of the state of the computer book market by programming language. That means it is time for us to reiterate how authors of decent books can earn far more for their work by cutting out the middlemen including trade publishers like O'Reilly. Traditional book publishers are a dying breed. Aside from e-books, they have been driven out by an increasing number of so-called "self-published" books. In the context of software development, this is particularly common around non-mainstream subjects and includes titles such as OCaml for Scientists and Programming in Scala . O'Reilly's analysis excluded all such books even though they are far more profitable for authors. In order to make a case for self-publishing it is necessary to present some information about a variety of existing books: OCaml for Scientists was written and self-published in 2005 and is sold for £85 through the publisher's website....