My first (and likely last) e-book experience - "The Google Legacy"
Everyone remembers their first time (buying an e-book). I surely will. I was really jazzed about the release of Stephen E. Arnold's "The Google Legacy - How Google's Internet Search is Transforming Application Software", available exclusively as an e-book, a concept I've never been big on. Until now...what the hell, right? Rather apropos that I'd purchase a PDF'ed manuscript about an open-source company wanting to move everything from the desktop to the Internet.
I naively thought such would run me about $10 at most....I'd until I saw the site. $180?!?!? Someone tell me this is in error, or that I missed the placement of a decimal point.
I've read the sample chapter profiling Google's technology, and it's brilliantly researched, beautifully written and thought-provoking, but not worth a price that's more expensive than a 4GB iPod Mini. WebWord says the price is justified, but I disagree...no single-volume, 290-page book (seeing as how it's marketed as such, not to be confused as some government-level formal report or whitepaper) is worth that much. I'd still really like to own this work, but not at that price.
In lieu of a more formal reason why, I don't hold author Arnold solely responsible - I look to Infonortics, who publishes the work. Surely there can be a more cost-effective way of releasing the book. Heck, Manning is leveraging being drowned by the e-book tidal wave by creating its Manning Early Access Program, releasing single chapters sequentially to members as a forthcoming title is being published. I'm reading "Ajax in Action" this way, and it's very neat. And effective: I'll surely still buy the hard copy.
What gives?