I buy a lot of books published by the Pragmatic Programmers. They specialize in technical manuals for software development, including the Ruby on Rails framework we use for things we develop in-house like Dossier and Depot. Like most computer books, these tend to weigh in at 300 pages or so. Try lugging around a couple of those along with a laptop.

Most publishers who cater to developers like me now offer their books in PDF format. Among the benefits are

• PDF versions tend to be a few bucks cheaper
• PDF versions can be purchased and put to use in a matter of minutes
• PDF versions weigh zero pounds, zero ounces
• PDF versions are keyword searchable!
• PDF versions are easily updatable

That last point is important, especially for books with code samples that must be typo-free to work properly. Typos happen, and they get missed when a book goes out the door. A publisher can quickly get an updated version out the door–great for customer relations. The Pragmatic Programmers take this a step further: They provide beta access to works-in-progress. Readers get early access to critical information (Ruby on Rails is a rapidly evolving platform) in return for providing feedback to authors. It’s a neat way to involve readers in the publishing process.

I’ve currently got a beta book on my virtual Pragmatic Programmers bookshelf, so I can show you how the process works.

To begin, an e-mail message arrives to let me know an updated version of my book is available (I can also get this information via RSS).

Looking at my virtual bookshelf, I see that one of my books (Advanced Rails Recipes) has an update available. All I need to do is regenerate the PDF, and the Pragmatic Programmers’ server gets to work.

In a few minutes, I receive another e-mail. This one contains a unique link to my copy of the updated PDF version of the book.

Here’s my updated PDF. At the bottom of each page of the PDF is my registration information–if this copy of the book winds up on a file sharing network, everybody’s going to know who leaked it. (Yes, this method of piracy protection relies heavily on he honors system, but really, so does the print version. It’s not hard to hire a student to scan every page of a book, if you really wanted to.)

Also at the bottom of each page is a link to “report erratum.” This takes me to the errata page for the book:

If I find a problem in the beta book, I can quickly submit it for consideration, or look up corrections submitted by others. Advanced Rails Recipes is pretty far along at this point–earlier additions had lots of reader-submitted fixes.

Is this practical for any book? Probably not–I have a weighty psychology textbook this semester, for example, that may be a bit too dense for reading on the screen. But if it were my only option I could make the PDF version work. And for all of the Pragmatic Programmers books, I can order the paper version just as easily (I can even order the paper and PDF versions as a combo for a few dollars more). I get access to cutting edge material, and I can even give feedback on the book itself if I want. Best of all, I have an entire reference library on my laptop–no trips to the chiropractor required.

What would you think of a PDF version of the SIM library?

Tags: pdf, publishing